Inclusion and Accessibility: The New Challenge of Cultural Routes

In recent years, destinations have been designing and developing numerous solutions to meet the needs of a new era of tourists. These experiences are aimed at all people, but are particularly relevant for those tourists with disabilities or special needs. The number of tourists with special needs, in fact, is increasing worldwide, and many destinations are activating completely new and technologically advanced services to meet these needs. However, these new offers do not only benefit people with disabilities; they benefit everyone, giving rise to ‘tourism for all’, where all tourists can experience innovative, participatory and immersive experiences, often preferring these new proposals to traditional tourism products (Leiper, 1995). The theoretical background provides the basis for empirically verifying how a destination can transform the challenges and opportunities related to tourism for people with disabilities into a strength. In this direction, the methodology used to demonstrate the validity of the tool of Smart Accessible Destination (SAD) is the analysis of costs and benefits and the application of the tool in a case study. The case study Bibione is, in fact, the first Italian tourist destination certified the full accessibility. As a geographical case study, the author uses the territory of Bibione and its tourist destination that is very famous in Italy for seaside tourism, sport tourism and wellness tourism. Finally, the chapter aims to investigate the difference between the accessibility destination and the SAD for valuing the positive impacts on the local community and tourists.