ACTION – Accessible tourism: Co-creation of Tourism experIence thrOugh Web-based IntelligeNt System / The Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP) financed by national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and, co-financed by FEDER under the COMPETE – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030376).
The main keywords of ACTION are: Tourism experiences; Accessible tourism; Co-creation; Web-based Intelligent Information Systems
Summary
Although nowadays tourism is one of the most important economic activities worldwide, contributing, contributing 10.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10% of the total employment generated [1], there are still several groups in our society that face many travel constraints, particularly persons with disabilities (PwD).
The contribution of tourism to the promotion of an inclusive society implies the adoption of strategies that promote the accessibility of tourism destinations, allowing all people, regardless of their health condition, to enjoy tourism experiences. To accomplish this objective, it is of utmost relevance to promote the active involvement of all stakeholders of the tourism system (demand, supply, government entities and educational institutions) in the co-creation of accessible and adapted tourism products.
The project ‘ACTION: Accessible tourism: Co-creation of Tourism experIence thrOugh a Web-based IntelligeNt System’ aims at responding to this great challenge, developing an innovative instrument to provide communication, information sharing, suggestions based on users’ profiles and knowledge transfer among all stakeholders: (i) consumers (PwD), the elderly and other people with functional limitations; (ii) supply agents (producers – accommodation units, food & beverage units, transport and tourism animation enterprises, intermediaries – travel agents and tour operators, and public organizations with responsibility in the sector; and (iii) institutions responsible for training in tourism (universities and other higher education institutions. Therefore, through an integrated and multidisciplinary approach, this project intends to respond to the following research question: How to promote accessible tourism through the co-creation of tourism experiences, involving all actors through Web-based Intelligent Systems?
This research project is of great relevance to increase the differentiation and competitiveness of tourism destinations, encouraging the development of accessible tourism and simultaneously contributing to the promotion of more inclusive societies. Given the nature and complexity of the phenomenon under study, a multidisciplinary approach, with a triangulation of methods regarding data collection and analysis and information and communication technologies will be adopted in this research project. The use of this approach will be facilitated by the multidisciplinary nature of the research team (management, economy, sociology, tourism, new technologies and information systems and higher education). Moreover, the research team has also developed important research in many fields of this project, disseminated through several international publications, Ph.D. dissertations, and research projects.