TEHRAN – Iran’s Welfare Organization is encouraging initiatives to make disabled tourists more comfortable on vacations and to improve the quality of life for disabled locals.

“We are pursuing a pilot plan to turn the Qeshm Free Trade Zone into a travel destination suitable for the physically-impaired people and then expand the scheme to other areas,” Mehr quoted Ebrahim Kazemi, an official with the Organization, as saying on Tuesday.

Based on a memorandum of understanding signed between the Organization and Qeshm Free Trade Zone, Qeshm Island will be the first free zone to be fit for commuting of the disabled people, he said.

The plan will subsequently be implemented in the provinces of Lorestan, Golestan, and Isfahan, the official added.

In May, Vali Teymouri, the deputy tourism chief, announced that Si-e Tir, a historical stone-paved one-way street in downtown Tehran, was designated as an accessible tourism destination for all people, deputy tourism chief has said.

Introduced by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the creation of the international “Accessible Tourism Destination” aims to make sure that a destination can be enjoyed by any tourist, regardless of their physical, sensory or cognitive abilities.

Development and implementation of the Accessible Tourism Destination(s), that shifts the focus on the availability of tourism services for people with disabilities and veterans, is jointly on the agenda of the UNWTO and the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, Teymouri said.

The UNWTO Recommendations on Accessible Tourism for All are meant to be used as a general, basic mainstreaming framework for ensuring that people with disabilities have access to the physical environment, the transportation system, information and communications channels, as well as to a wide range of public facilities and services.

AFM/MQ/MG