An intercultural analysis of the websites and tourist destinations profiles on social networks, from the perspective of digital accessibility and inclusive communication. Case study for Andalusia and Northern Morocco.

Abstract

Tourists with disabilities, representing approximately 15% of the world's population, especially need everything planned for their tourist experiences. Therefore, the contents and level of digital accessibility are vital and significantly impact the final decision to travel to one destination. This work aims to analyse the digital accessibility content developed by destinations in Andalusia and Northern Morocco from the perspective of web accessibility and inclusive communication in social media. The method used is multidisciplinary, carrying out a series of analyses through the statistical language R, TAW as an online tool to analyse the website's accessibility and synthesise guidelines for communicating inclusively in social networks. The main results show the scarce involvement of public bodies to communicate inclusively designing content from the universal design perspective. There is no substantial difference between the two regions studied, by identifying that European legislation and national regulatory framework in Andalusia's case do not favour a better level of web accessibility, although this is a mandatory aspect. Furthermore, we have found very few differences in analysing the performance level of destinations under the umbrella of Smart Tourism Destinations when accessibility is fundamental in their conceptualisation. Finally, this research can be identified as state-of-the-art in tourism marketing as a conceptual approach and a starting point for measuring inclusive communication in social networks. Nowadays, accessible tourism is an opportunity to be placed at the centre of recovery plans in the post-Covid 19 eras. Therefore, let us facilitate more inclusive societies, using tourism as a lever to achieve this goal.