Last April 12th DSE conducted, in collaboration with Dialogue in the Dark Milan, A Dialogue Online Workshop on inclusive tourism.
We were invited to conduct this workshop by the Istituto Chiossone di Genova – our former Dialogue in the Dark partner in Genoa.
Twelve Italian tourism students from the Axia Formazione & Consulenza attended the workshop. This session was part of the online course "Esperto in gestione di processi e strategie digitali per il turismo esperienziale e per il turismo accessibile" (“Expert in process management and digital strategies for experiential and accessible tourism”).
Through experiential exercises, several powerful messages were conveyed to the tourism students such as the fact that inclusion is universal since we all have felt it and have felt too its opposite – exclusion. Inclusion works better when there is fluent and empathetic communication. And inclusion flourishes especially when little changes are introduced in the system to allow more equal access.
By the end of the workshop, the students had the chance to design an inclusive touristic visit with the help of a blind person as one more colleague in the team.
This encounter between blind persons and future touristic operators was very powerful. It was clear that even though accessibility in tourism is desirable, inclusion goes beyond physical adaptations, but lies rather on building an empathetic kind link with users.
Inclusion is always there within. We just need to recognize we always play a role on including or excluding someone in whatever we do. We just need to be aware that we also love being included. And it applies to all topics, including tourism.