Inclusive tourism is being developed in St. Petersburg

The Northern capital is open to travelers with disabilities and offers opportunities for a comfortable stay in the city. For this purpose in St. Petersburg interesting inclusive routes are developed, and also museums, sights, exhibition complexes, gastronomic establishments and many other things are adapted for visiting.

December 4 in the Russian capital in the framework Of the international forum "INCLUSION-EXPO. Rehabilitation. Accessible environment. Assistive technologies " was held the all-Russian conference on the development of affordable (inclusive) tourism, organized by Rostourism and the Association of tour operators (ATOR). At the thematic section of the conference devoted to the practice of forming tourism products of inclusive tourism, the representative of the Committee for tourism development of St. Petersburg spoke about the developed tourist routes available for disabled people and other disabled groups.

To date, 9 tourist routes have been developed, two of which are for children. These are "Parade Petersburg", "Country residences", "Tsarskoye Selo walk", "Confessions in St. Petersburg", "Blockade of Leningrad" (for children), "Sovereign's fun" (for children), "Where the city began", "high-Society Petersburg" and "Architect Vasily Stasov". All routes are available on the portal Visit-Petersburg.ru in the section "Accessible environment" and were highly appreciated by the all-Russian society of the blind and the St. Petersburg public human rights organization of disabled people "in a wheelchair without barriers".

To create inclusive routes, museums, attractions, exhibition complexes, catering facilities, toilets, souvenir shops were surveyed for accessibility for disabled people. Also, the analysis of transport infrastructure near the objects of tourism: public transport stops, routes of regular urban and regular commercial transport.

Besides the portal Visit-Petersburg.ru you can learn about inclusive routes in the brochure "Features of visiting tourist sites and routes of St. Petersburg by persons with disabilities", which are distributed in the offices of the City tourist information Bureau (GTIB). In addition, the "Available environment" section of the portal Visit-Petersburg.ru it contains information about hotels and gastronomy, offering special conditions for the accommodation of people with disabilities.

GTIB offices are also available for people with limited mobility. Rollo ramps are installed in the pavilion on Palace square and in the office on Sadovaya, 37. Intercom devices are available in the pavilions on Palace square, Vosstaniya square, Alexander Park (near Ioanovsky bridge), as well as in the offices at Sadovaya, 14/52 and Sadovaya, 37. The "employee Call" signs are located in the pavilion on Palace square and in the offices at Sadovaya, 37 and Sadovaya 14/52. In addition, the information offices can take a questionnaire to determine the availability of tourist information centers for people with disabilities. All offices and pavilions of the organization are placed as objects of accessible environment on an interactive map city4you.spb.ru.

Reference

The government of the Russian Federation of November 11, 2014 approved The "strategy of tourism development in the Russian Federation for the period 2020 No. 2246-R", paragraph 28 of which reads: creation and implementation of the program for the introduction of a barrier-free environment at the facilities of the tourism industry for people with disabilities. As part of the Strategy, the Committee for tourism development of St. Petersburg cooperates with the St. Petersburg regional branch of the all-Russian society for the blind and the St. Petersburg state library for the blind and visually impaired. The result of this cooperation was an increase in the number of adapted excursion programs in the museums of the city for various groups of disabled citizens (to date, about 12 museums have offered adapted programs or adapted existing programs for special visitors) and an increase in the number of individual tourists who apply to the Library.