Portugal’s Accessible Tourism Research Booms, but Travel Barriers Remain Uneven

The research brings together seven international reviews of publication patterns, Portuguese doctoral and master’s research completed between 2011 and 2025, and accommodation register figures from 2005 and 2025.

A holiday can become difficult before it begins when a traveller cannot find reliable accessibility information or establish whether a hotel meets their needs. The study 'The Evolution of Accessible and Inclusive Tourism: A Multi-Dimensional Assessment with Evidence from Portugal,' published in Tourism and Hospitality, examines the distance between growing knowledge about inclusive travel and the systems needed to support it. Researchers Jorge Umbelino, Flávio Ferreira, Zanete Garanti and Sotiroula Liasidou found strong academic activity, limited postgraduate engagement and substantial regional differences in Portugal's reported accessible accommodation.

The research brings together seven international reviews of publication patterns, Portuguese doctoral and master's research completed between 2011 and 2025, and accommodation register figures from 2005 and 2025. Its central finding is that research, education and tourism provision have developed at different speeds, making publication counts alone an inadequate measure of progress towards travel that more people can enjoy.

Growing Research Has Not Reached Every Corner of Tourism

The researchers examined seven reviews and found that studies on accessible tourism increased considerably over the past two decades, with faster growth after 2010. Some reviews showed publication numbers reaching a peak around 2020, and newer reviews found further growth in 2024. The reviews used different databases and search terms, so the evidence does not clearly show whether research has started to slow down.

Portugal, Australia and Spain were among the leading countries in several reviews, particularly those examining 'accessible tourism.' Searching for 'inclusive tourism' produced different country rankings, showing that the words researchers use can affect their findings. These rankings counted publications without considering each country's population or research resources, and many papers involved researchers from only one country, leaving opportunities for more international teamwork.

Major tourism journals now publish research on accessibility, with Tourism Management among the leading publications and Simon Darcy identified as an influential researcher. Earlier studies focused mainly on explaining accessibility and examining disability and tourist facilities; newer work explores accessible websites and digital tools, local communities, tourism planning, travel in Africa and tourism during quieter seasons. More research is needed to understand how travellers choose destinations, how their needs differ and how accessible tourism affects spending and businesses.

Tourism Education Shows a Weaker Commitment

Portugal's national open-access repository contained just eight doctoral theses and 46 master's dissertations centrally concerned with accessible or inclusive tourism across the 15-year study period. These represented 2.4% of tourism-related doctoral theses and 1.1% of master's dissertations in the repository, with no clear upward trend that matched the field's expanding international visibility.

The postgraduate work covered meaningful practical questions, including accessibility at historic centres, museums, castles and nature trails; experiences involving visual impairment, reduced mobility and neurodivergence; hotel adaptation and staff preparedness; and digital tools such as mobile applications and audio description. Some projects examined disability content in tourism courses, student attitudes and employment barriers affecting people with disabilities.

The authors interpret the small postgraduate total as evidence that prominent researchers and productive groups have not necessarily been matched by broad educational commitment. Earlier studies cited in the paper report scarce explicit accessibility learning outcomes in Portuguese tourism programmes and weaknesses in employees' preparation to serve guests with disabilities. The present research did not track graduates into employment or prove that particular teaching gaps caused particular service problems.

More Adapted Accommodation, Unequal Regional Progress

The accommodation analysis counted establishments reporting at least three units with bathrooms adapted for people with reduced mobility. Portugal had 60 establishments meeting that threshold in 2005 and 219 in 2025, an increase to more than three times the original number. This represents substantial growth from a small starting point, rather than evidence that accessible travel is now widely available.

Porto and the North recorded the largest 2025 total, with 60 qualifying establishments, followed by the Centre with 45 and the Algarve with 37. Lisbon had 27, Alentejo 26, Madeira 18 and the Azores six. Lisbon and Madeira increased their actual numbers, despite losing share of the national total as other regions expanded faster.

To put the figures in context, the researchers compared qualifying establishments with the classified hotel accommodation stock, producing a national indicator that rose from 3.0% to 9.8%. Alentejo recorded the highest 2025 value at 17.9%, compared with 4.7% in the Azores and 6.0% in Lisbon. These are the study's narrowly defined accommodation indicators, rather than comprehensive accessibility ratings for those destinations.

The authors suggest that incorporating accessibility into new developments may be easier than adapting older buildings, where structural constraints and costs can complicate improvements. Their data do not test that explanation directly, and changes in accommodation regulations, registration practices and retrieval methods complicate comparisons between the two years. Two snapshots cannot show whether improvements happened steadily or during a shorter burst of investment.

Better Travel Requires Training, Verification and Traveller Input

The paper recommends regional accessibility targets, financial support for adapting existing properties and closer cooperation between universities, tourism businesses and public authorities. Tourism courses could integrate dedicated accessibility teaching, practical placements and collaboration with disability studies, with people with disabilities participating as equal partners in designing learning and tourism services. Short accredited courses could help existing staff strengthen their skills.

Independent accessibility audits would make register information more useful, since establishments' declarations were not checked against actual usability. Adapted bathrooms reveal nothing by themselves about entrances, circulation space, signs, accessible websites, transport connections or staff support, and properties offering fewer than three adapted units fall outside the selected threshold.