‘ …we mainly met surfing the Net, but now we want back old-fashioned real encounters…’

Actually, most of the partners of this bid got in touch through the use of news ICTs and, although grateful to them, after a quite long period of virtual collaboration, feel the need to strengthen this relationship with real meetings in the ambit of a concrete project.

The framework of this project is given by the matching of the ever-increasing demand for equal opportunities by people with special needs with the traditional tourist vocation of the lands we belong to.

The equation between equal opportunities and tourism has given us the idea for this project, eager to explore possible synergies among the partners in the field of tourism accessible by all, with particular concern in museum, gastronomic and naturalistic circuits.

Our target audiences are adults and young adults trainees and staff members, ‘statistically normal’ or with different abilities, whom we want to involve in reflections on the transition from education to working life and on the opportunities offered in this context by the EU, against the scenario of lifelong learning.

The final outcomes of the project are manifold, and so are the scheduled activities. Among the first ones we recall the tourist e-book and the training modules on Europass CV, tourism for customers with special needs, travel literature and creative writing in L1 and L2; among the second ones we remember the workshops, the seminars and the final conference.

For a proper transnational management of the partnership, specific tools will be created and produced: VLE, multilingual websites and booklets, blogs and dissemination tools. A specific and detailed valorisation plan has already been foreseen for all the mentioned events and products.

The European dimension is pivotal to the whole project.