Turespaña, in collaboration with some autonomies, has invested nearly five million euros in the last five years to promote and improve the experience of tourists who have a disability and thus “facilitate access to everyone.” During the celebration of the 44th edition of the Fitur International Tourism Fair, held this week in Madrid, the tourism sector has highlighted the need to facilitate tourism for everyone. In particular, participating companies have focused on accessibility to make “tourism accessible to all.” In the third quarter of 2023, a total of 60.6 million trips were made, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Specifically, the destinations most visited by Spaniards were the national territories, with Andalusia in the lead, with more than 10.8 million visits, followed by Catalonia, with 7.7 million and the Valencian Community, which received 6.8 millions of tourists. Accessibility in national destinations has been promoted by the collaboration between the destinations and Turespaña. Specifically, the tourism promotion body invested, in collaboration with the autonomous communities, more than five million euros to promote the accessibility of the territories, as well as the creation of specialized consultation portals. Regarding the promotion of accessible tourism, Turespaña sources told Servimedia that “different lines of action have been developed, such as adapting monuments that were not accessible, as well as in inns.” Regarding the creation of specialized consultation portals, the same sources highlighted that work has been done to improve the existing ones, providing greater detail and information to “make tourism easier for people with disabilities”, as well as the creation of said pages. website in those autonomies that did not yet have their own. The autonomous communities also developed plans to facilitate access to tourism for this group, as well as the adaptation of different areas such as transportation or access to establishments. An example of this is Catalonia, which has allocated more than 10.5 million euros in the last four years to adapt some metro stations that until then were not accessible, such as Plaza España, a large urban center and a point on the metro network. of the city of Barcelona, which has been a center of great demand due to its importance in the city’s public transport. Source: SERVIMEDIA