Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development 2024, 8(2), 2735. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i2.2735 1 Article The importance of infrastructure in the development of accessible tourism Tibor Gonda Institute of Marketing and Tourism, Faculty of Economics, University of Pécs, 7622 Pécs, Hungary; gonda.tibor@ktk.pte.hu Abstract: Accessible tourism is an area that has received only scant attention in Hungarian tourism research. A change in this is only visible in recent years, as a result of the work of a few researchers starting to focus on this issue. Based on the findings of a questionnaire survey, the author of this paper presents important characteristics of travel by people living with disabilities, discussing the need to develop its infrastructure. The issue of accessible tourism concerns approximately 10% of the population of Europe, so in addition to the social and moral magnitude of the issue, serving the travel needs of people living with disabilities is also significant for the economy. In order to create the special supply and to provide equal access of services for those concerned, their expectations and unique consumer habits must be known. As member of an Erasmus project called Peer Act, the author also details the research findings of four project partner countries (Germany, Italy, Spain and Croatia) where data was collected from small samples. Keywords: accessible tourism; infrastructure; best practices; motivation; tourism product 1. Introduction In developed countries, accessibility is receiving increasing attention in the organisation of tourism offers, partly out of humanity but also in recognition of the significant business potential it represents. A destination that pays sufficient attention to this issue can be more competitive than others. In the most general terms, accessible tourism can be defined as tourism that is equally accessible to all, including people with disabilities, people with temporary disabilities, older people with young children, and multi-generational families. (Darcy and Dickson, 2009). Accordingly, the main areas of analysing equal access correspond to the main areas of the supply side of tourism: Accommodation services, hospitality, tourist attractions, transport, and communication. Of these, it is perhaps the accessibility of attractions that is most in the limelight of the literature, probably because of the fact that a large proportion of attractions are publicly owned and operated (Káldy, 2010). The definition of the target group for accessible tourism is somewhat problematic. The public often excludes those individuals who, due to their life situations, belong to this group temporarily: For example, pregnant women, people with temporary mobility disabilities recovering from surgery, and the elderly. However, the ratio of the latter group of such people is steadily growing within the whole population, and for them, many forms of accessibility represent a fundamental necessity. Taking a broader and perhaps somewhat philosophical approach, we can also say that accessibility is a continuous effort of human existence to strive for comfort (Farkas and Petykó, 2019; Farkas and Petykó, 2020). Thus, many of us live with some kind of permanent or temporary disability, which can be an obstacle in our lives and a barrier in holiday-making. In fact, accessible tourism involves a continuous effort to ensure CITATION Gonda T. (2024). The importance of infrastructure in the development of accessible tourism. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development. 8(2): 2735. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i2.27 35 ARTICLE INFO Received: 31 August 2023 Accepted: 26 November 2023 Available online: 27 December 2023 COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2023 by author(s). Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development is published by EnPress Publisher, LLC. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/