When Jacky Hsu visited Edinburgh, Scotland, he explored the city on handicapped-accessible tour buses. In Japan, he traveled with few difficulties, with the assistance of subway workers and detailed tour information.
Back home, however, Hsu -- who has infantile paralysis -- as well as more than 910,000 others with mental or physical disabilities, often worry about how to get to their destination.
The number of disabled people is expected to rise as Taiwan becomes an aged society, so creating a barrier-free environment no longer means just meeting the basic needs of the disabled community. It may also pave the way for the development of accessible tourism -- a growing market around the world.
"The number of potential tourists who require accessible attractions is increasing internationally. Many countries have been working on improving tourism amenities to satisfy the needs of the disabled community or the elderly, and we'd like to make Taiwan the next country with successful accessible tourism," Lin Wen-pin (林文賓), the head of Eden Social Welfare Foundation's development department, said yesterday.
During a press conference called to announce an international accessible-tourism conference organized by the foundation and Asia Pacific Disability Forum, groups for the disabled and elderly introduced the concept of accessible tourism, which aims to provide accessible and friendly services and facilities for the disabled and the elderly.
Taipei Deputy Mayor King Pu-tsung (
King, who is the head of the city's accessible environment promotion committee, promised to make Taipei one of the most livable places in the world.
"Creating an accessible environment is a task. What we do is to make priorities of facilities needing to be improved. Currently we are working on bridges and pavement accessibility, followed by parks and tourism spots in the next round," King said.
"Older people in countries such as Japan and the United States represent a high percentage of the traveling population. We hope that with the conference, Taiwan's travel industry will work with us to make elder tourists benefit from a vacation without obstacles or difficulties," said Wu Yu-chin (
According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior last year, the elderly make up almost 10 percent of Taiwan's population. When the disabled are taken into account, more than 17 percent of people in this country need a barrier-free environment.
Hsu said that in addition to facilities, availability of information about the accessibility of tourism spots, such as accessible guides for tourists or on the Web, is also important for developing successful accessible tourism.
The first international accessible tourism conference will be held at the Grand Hotel from tomorrow through Sunday. A total of 58 experts on accessible tourism and disabled groups from 10 countries will attend.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS