QUALITY IN TOURISM AND DEMAND FROM PEOPLE WITH REDUCED CAPABILITIES.

Luis Grünewald.
Fundación Turismo para Todos.
Info@turismoparatodos.org.ar

Services suppliers must be trained and qualified in order to enhance integration of people with restricted capacities - PRC- during their free time of tourism and leisure.

It can be stated that one of the main aims during the last quinquennium in the 20th century has been social and productive integration of people with restricted capabilities. It could be stated too that we are moving towards a leisure civilization in which the proper use of free time acquires a fundamental importance in the physical and social development of the individual.

Accounting for what is above mentioned we'll intend to set out in this article an analysis of quality in the use of that time of leisure that we generically name as "accessible tourism" for persons with restricted capacities.

CONCEPTUAL FRAME AND MAIN VARIABLES IN ACCESSIBLE TOURISM.

When defining any activity a "point of view" that will determine in which way reality is going to be understood, must be set. Therefore, in the case of accessible tourism we can establish as a definition that accessible tourism is the group of activities originated during free time that make possible total integration from the functional and psychological sides of those people with restricted capacities, obtaining the visitor a total individual and social satisfaction from these activities. Accessible Tourism takes to settle integration guidelines during the activity for this set of people with different capacities that are by a physical permanent deficiency (motor, sensorial, pathological or visceral) as well as by transitory, chronological and/or anthropometric circumstances.

This so ample set of people involves in tourism among other segments of the demand, "third age" group, family groups with children, young and temporary disabled persons (pregnant women, plastered people, etc.) and permanent disabled persons (motor, sensorial and mental); according to the general statistics they conform a 40% segment in the world's population; therefore a particular attention to the subject is required during the process of planning tourist and recreational activities.

It's been possible to establish as the variables of greater meaning in the case of the accessible tourism:

-ACCESSIBILITY TO THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
-QUALITY IN SERVING CUSTOMERS

Much has been said and written on the first subject and that's why I will go deeply into quality in the tourism activity.

QUALITY AND DEMAND FROM PERSONS WITH RESTRICTED CAPACITIES.

We can say that tourism requests in general, and the ones from People with restricted capacities in particular, search escaping daily routines and look for a state of permanent well-being during the time to tourism; they look for products and services that offer the best benefits to them and from which the highest rank of satisfaction during their stay in a tourist destination is obtained. Quality is a necessary factor in order to achieve satisfaction.

What is nowadays understood by "quality"?
The OMT, in its work program, understands quality in tourism as "the result of a process that implies the satisfaction of all the requirements, exigencies and legitimate expectations of the consumers regarding products and services, acceptably priced, in conformity with mutually accepted contractual conditions and with underlying factors that determine quality, such as security, hygiene, accessibility, and the transparency, authenticity and harmony of a tourist activity worried about its human and natural surroundings ". (1) This wide approach in the definition implies an integral form to raise and solve the necessary guidelines to establish a successful tourist business. The addition of efforts to offer quality in private businesses and in public policies is evolving from the classic control of quality to the securing of quality in order to achieve which is today known as Management of Quality.

Several definitions of quality exist which have been changing with time, or becoming adapted to different approaches, but from the tourist point of view we can consider, in agreement with the OMT, that:

-quality is an element of great cross-sectional meaning for the competitiveness, commerce, sustainability and businesses ethics.

-the dynamics of the tourist activity requires from services suppliers permanent innovation and improvements in the quality of their services.

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