The Association of Persons with Physical Disabilities of Bitola, Demir Hisar and Resen – MOBILNOST Bitola, as the third partner in the ALTER TRIP Project, organized a Training Seminar in Bitola, which was held in the Restaurant “Korzo” on 7 June 2023. The seminar was attended by tourism stakeholders from the cross-border region of both countries, and the venue was selected as the most accessible in the city.
Around 50 participants from both countries had the opportunity to learn what is accessibility in the first place, how to design accessible touristic products and services, what are the legal requirements and the legal framework on international, European and national level. Also, a very important aspect of today’s digital society is the web accessibility, so one part of the training was dedicated to the accessible website and the ways to check and improve accessibility of the online content. The use of ICT tools was practically shown at the event, where with the help of QR codes and NFC tags people with visual and hearing impairments can get to know the rich cultural heritage of our region.
Key speakers at the Seminar were Dr. Ivanka Nestoroska and Dr. Risto Rechkoski, both full professors at the Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality – Ohrid, University “St. Kliment Ohridski” – Bitola, as well as Dr. Irena Ruzhin and MSc Jove Pargovski from NI Institute and Museum – Bitola. The four experts are also preparing a Manual on how to design accessible touristic products and services, which will be available in Macedonian and in English. The manual will explain in a simple way, with illustrated examples, what are the parameters and perspectives of the accessible tourism, so that all stakeholders can firstly assess id their businesses are accessible, and what they can do to improve the accessibility for their visitors.
The event was covered by multiple local and national media, including the national service MRT, whose coverage was part of the First Channel News.
As an Association of persons with disabilities that is functioning for 36 years, MOBILNOST Bitola makes continuous efforts to improve the accessibility in general, and thanks to the participation in the ALTER TRIP Project, we have made one significant step further towards achieving the statutory and program goals of the association.
About ALTER TRIP:
The ALTER TRIP project aspires to mobilize the process of transforming the cross-border area into an accessible and inclusive tourist destination and to support the sustainable development of cultural tourism.
The project is co-funded by the European Union and National Funds of the countries participating in the Interreg IPA CBC Program “Greece-Republic of North Macedonia” 2014-2020.