GATE – Granting Accessible Tourism for Everyone

In this cross-border project the collaborating Austrian and Italian partners promote barrier-free tourism for all in Alpine regions. Inclusive tourism expands the accessibility of natural and cultural heritage sites and contributes to sustainable regional development.

The project is co-funded by the Interreg V-A Italia-Österreich programme.

A special focus of GATE is technical solutions for improved touristic information on and access to natural and cultural attractions. This is being implemented in four pilot areas with different solutions such as mobile guides, chatbots, virtual and extended reality applications.

Furthermore the contribution of tourism for all to regional development is being studied and promoted. Salzburg Research carries out studies on barrier-free tourism, supports the evaluation of the pilot sites, and the transfer of knowledge to enable more regional innovations for inclusive tourism. For this purpose the project provides guidelines for inclusive tourism, a practical handbook and webinars that support awareness and implementation.

Easy hikes in the GATE pilot region Pongau

In collaboration with SalzburgerLand Tourismus the website Kinderleicht Wandern im Pongau has been implemented. The website provides information about over 80 easy hikes in the Pongau region of Salzburg, 35 of which also useable with a stroller. Users need only a device (mobile, tablet, desktop) with a web-browser, no download of an app is necessary. The information about the hikes comprises place of start/end, duration, length, difference in altitude, etc. and a downloadable map of the hike. Users can also rate hikes and upload own information such as comments and images.

Published results of the GATE project

The following documents are available (in different language versions):

• GATE Leitlinien für inklusiven Tourismus (in German and Italian)
• GATE Handbook for Inclusive Tourism (in English, German and Italian)
• Reports on the IT applications of the GATE pilot sites and the tools for barrier-free information (in English)
• Studien zu multisensorischen Zeichen für Barrierefreiheit von Tourismusangeboten (in German, short versions in English in the Handbook)
• Studie zu Portalen für barrierefreie touristische Angebote: Naturerlebnis- und Wanderangebote (in German, summary in English in the Handbook)

The documents can be downloaded from the Zenodo Repository: https://zenodo.org/communities/gate/