In India, Goa is the fresh entry into the domain of accessible tourism, making tourist destinations accessible to all including people with mobility challenges. India’s first accessible holiday specialist – Enable Travel and India’s first wheelchair taxi service – Ezy Mov, have collaboratively started providing accessible guided tours in Goa.
Come 2019, Goa will have such new facility of Wheelchair taxis. Initially five such vehicles will be launched in 2019.
Accessible tourism is the ongoing endeavour to make tourist destinations, products and services accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age. It includes both publicly and privately owned tourist locations. Older persons and people with different abilities are now becoming a growing group of consumers of travel, sports and other leisure-oriented products and services.
In an effort to tap the potential of this group, the Tourism Ministry of India has taken initiatives to make tourist destinations barrier-free and has authorized private organizations to extend their services.
Enable Travel’s head Debolin Sen, said, “For both domestic and international tourists, Goa has always been one of the most popular and favoured travel destinations in India . But for people with mobility issues including elderly travellers it remains inexperienced because of the absence of transport facilities. To ensure a barrier-free travel and enhance transportation within a destination, we have partnered with Ezy Mov who are experienced to address such need. We are very much content with our commitment to make travel easy and smooth in India and working with like-minded partners to create an inclusive and accessible travel environment.”
Likewise, Bennet D’cunha, CEO, Ezy Mov said, “So far as accessible tourism is concerned, our mission is to make India a leading nation among others and to start with, which else would be the better place other than Goa – the premier holiday destination of our country. Moreover, the public infrastructure in Goa currently is more accessible than compared to other states. We, along with Enable Travel share the common vision of providing world-class accessible assistance to our esteemed customers travelling from all over the world into India and Goa in particular.”
Up to now, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other northern European countries are progressively prepared to receive tourists in wheelchairs, and to provide disability equipment and wheelchair accessible transport.
Now in India, Ezy Mov is introduced as a modern organization with traditional values. It is a start up by professionals from varied business fields. Got started in 2015 with India’s first wheelchair taxi, the company now boasts of a technically advanced fleet of cabs fitted with world class equipment like hydraulic lifts and wheelchair control systems; and are driven by a team of professional and courteous drivers.
