People with Visual Impairment: barriers to leisure tourism

Abstract

This research aimed to identify the factors that restrict the consumption of leisuretourism services for people with visual impairments. The inclusive tourism walking at a slowpace in Brazil, despite 24 million Brazilians are people with disabilities - of which48%have visual impairments, focus of this study. In this study a questionnaire was designed withthe help of literature review and interviews with eight key informants. The questionnaire contained 27 statements covering different aspects of constraint to tourism for people with visual impairments. The questionnaire was emailed to people with visualimpairments, resulting in 202 valid responses. The results of this studysuggest seven factors restricting the consumption of leisure tourism services for people with visual impairment: time, money, Personal Issues, Importance of the Company, attitudinal barriers, architectural barriers and Service. The major averages have been attributed to factors Importance of Service and Company. Considering the results, itis possible to suggest that the sector studied, lack of investment in training forthe frontline staff are able to attend the visually impaired properly. At the end of the article are suggestions for new research efforts.