Mallorca is a sponsor destination at this edition in line with the commitment to responsible tourism promoted by the island institution.
The President of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, inaugurated the second edition of Fitur4All this Friday at the Fitur fair, of which Mallorca is a sponsor destination, accompanied by the Minister of Tourism, Marcial Rodríguez, and the island’s Director of Tourism for Demand and Hospitality, Susanna Sciacovelli. The president of Impulsa Igualdad, Francisco Sardón, and the director of Fitur, María Valcarce, also took part in the inauguration, along with the president of the Consell de Mallorca.
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The President of the Consell de Mallorca inaugurates Fitur4all and defends the need to promote accessible and universal tourism ‘for everyone’
In his speech, Galmés defended the need to promote accessible and universal tourism ‘for everyone’ and stressed that ‘accessible and universal tourism, where everyone has a place, regardless of whether they have any kind of need, whether physical, mental, intellectual or of any other kind or difficulty derived from their age, is and will undoubtedly be one of the fundamental pillars of the Consell de Mallorca’s tourism policy’.
The president also added that the Consell’s goal to achieve accessible tourism is to provide an offer of destinations for all people, regardless of their individual characteristics, incorporating a perspective of autonomy and normalisation.
Furthermore, under the 2024-2027 action plan, the Mallorca Tourism Foundation will continue to focus on actions to promote universal tourism, and will continue to evaluate new projects with the relevant associations and the sector. According to Galmés, ‘tourism is a right for all, a universal right, and it will be treated as a key aspect to be achieved in all our tourist offer, through sport, gastronomy or culture, in short, a responsible, inclusive and coexistence tourism for all’.
Accessible Mallorca
The commitment to responsible tourism that marks Mallorca’s tourism strategy is to be a fully accessible destination, in which everyone’s needs are universally met, regardless of their specific needs. This is why Mallorca has decided to sponsor this initiative, which is dedicated to strengthening quality, diversity and inclusion in the global tourism offer.
Fitur4All Programme
A full programme of presentations and round tables will be held today to focus on the latest trends and best practices in accessible tourism, highlighting the commitment to social sustainability, the innovative use of technology and data, and the optimisation of the accessible tourism value chain.
The day’s conference was opened with a talk entitled ‘Mallorca, a destination for all’, given by the Consell de Mallorca’s Department of the Environment, Rural Affairs and Sports.
The second vice-president and councillor for the Environment, Rural Affairs and Sports, Pedro Bestard, highlighted the model of accessible tourism, designed and put into practice for the elderly under the title ‘Mallorca, universal tourism’. These sports stays and physical activity programmes with a local tourism component are carried out in different municipalities and combine relaxation, landscape and physical activity. In addition to a psychosocial factor which is the generation of community. The key to this programme is collaborating with the most important hotel chains in Mallorca: Blau Hotels, Garden Hotels, Hotels Viva, Iberostar and Protur.
The Consell de Mallorca also provides this tourism programme with different facilities and adapted sports sessions in the villages, in the towns where the stays take place, to reach this population profile with accessibility and suitability and to be able to grow in future years. ‘In short, Mallorca for tourists is many Mallorcans’, said the Minister.
Afterwards, the directors of the OTS of London, Manuel Butler; Toronto, Isabel Martín; and Tokyo, Jaime Alejandre, shared a round table.
This was followed by the debate ‘Social sustainability as a transforming axis in accessible tourism’, led by the coordinator of accessibility of the UNWTO, Igor Stefanovic, the vice-minister of tourism of Peru, Madeleine Burns Vidaurrazaga, the advisor in tourism management of the Municipality of Montevideo, Karina Fortete. Isabel Novoa, President of ISTO, moderated the event.
‘Technology and data spaces as a way to develop accessible tourism’ was the title of the third round table, which was led by the president of Segittur, Enrique Martínez, the president of IURBAN, Andrés Martínez, the director of tourism in Gijón, Daniel Martinez Junquera, and the CEO of Anysolution, Dolores Ordoñez.
Transport was also the subject of debate in the context of universal inclusion, specifically air transport, with Vueling’s airport manager for eastern Spain, Ibiza and Menorca, Miguel Tenorio, representing British Airways, Xavier Mascarell, the director of ENAT, Ivor Ambrose, and the Foundation, Jesús Hernandez. Linda Ristagno, a IATA’s external affairs department member, moderated the event.
Fitur4all Awards and awareness-raising activities throughout the weekend
Susanna Sciacovelli, Director of Demand and Hospitality Tourism, attended the institutional closing ceremony. The Fitur4all Awards were presented to Benidorm, as an Inclusive National Destination; Colombia, as an Inclusive International Destination; Port Aventura World, as an Inclusive Tourism Company; and the Costa Rican Network of Accessible Tourism, as an Inclusive Institution.
Fitur4All continues its informative work throughout the day on Saturday with a full programme of activities aimed at the general public, taking advantage of the fact that the fair is open to the general public over the weekend.
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