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4th International Conference on Cultural Sustainable Tourism

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ALTERTRIP Interreg IPA Greece-Republic of North Macedonia 2014-2020, at the 4th International Conference on Cultural Sustainable Tourism (CST2022)

The Business & Exhibition Research and Development Institute (IEE), Lead beneficiary of ALTERTRIP project, participated at the 4th International Conference on Cultural Sustainable Tourism (CST2022), through an online presentation, on 22-23 November 2022. The hybrid conference was organized by the International Experts for Research Enrichment and Knowledge Exchange (IEREK) together with the University of Maia (Portugal). The presentation was also published in the Conference proceedings Journal. The presentation entitled “Accessible tourism businesses as a means of promoting sustainable cultural tourism in Thessaloniki, Greece”, discussed the accessibility of tourism businesses in Thessaloniki as a contributing factor to the city’s sustainable cultural tourism. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the performance of the existing accessible tourist services and facilities of the tourism businesses in five Regional Units of Northern Greece. Quantitative research was conducted in 134 selected tourism businesses. The research was conducted as part of the project “ALTER TRIP: Alternative Touristic Experience” funded by INTERREG IPA CBC Greece – Republic of North Macedonia 2014-2020. The results showed that generally the situation in the study area is moderate, regarding the accessibility of the tourism businesses. The goal is always for accessibility to be universal and ubiquitous, so, we conclude that there is room for improvement in the accessibility of tourism businesses in the study area. The most encouraging finding of the survey is the fact that those involved in tourism in the study area are willing to be educated and trained about accessibility, and also, they are willing to invest money in their businesses’ accessibility. The article concludes with some suggestions for improving the accessibility of tourism businesses in the study area, based on the barriers that emerged from the research.