Abstract
Sustainability studies in tourism are increasingly emphasizing social matters, for instance, “Accessible Tourism for All.” Research on people with visual impairments with smart tourism has so far been sparse. In order to resonate with the global call for sustainable tourism development, this paper aims to contribute to understanding the aspirations of people with visual impairments in terms of tourism and to explore how smart tourism destinations could potentially enhance the tourism experience they offer. We utilized multisensory participant observations and interviews to empathize with the target users and gain insights into their needs. The results showed that they were generally positive about travel, particularly autonomy, achievement needs, and socializing with other individuals. The findings also shed light on their desire to play games on their phones. Consequently, based on the findings and the theoretical groundings of PERMA model and MDA framework from positive psychology and game design, the study proposed a gamified approach to future tourism app design for people with visual impairments, which could enhance engagement, motivation, and enjoyment in the tourism experience.
Highlights
Given recent academic studies highlighting the social aspect of sustainable development [1,2], it is apparent that all stakeholders should be considered in the sustainable development of society [3]
Based on the higher-level needs mentioned above, the research question is how to propose an approach to design tourism apps that can transcend the fundamental functions but offer higher needs, such as psychological needs related to emotions for people with visual impairments? The objective of this study is to propose a gamified application approach that can enhance the tourism experience for those people at an emotional level
In order to comply with the sustainability goals from United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) [7] and the “Accessible Tourism for All” call from United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) [10], this study first examined the needs of people with visual impairments and investigated how gamification features can be implemented to enhance the on-site tourism experiences of people with visual impairments
Summary
Given recent academic studies highlighting the social aspect of sustainable development [1,2], it is apparent that all stakeholders should be considered in the sustainable development of society [3]. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) established the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the year 2030. Among these goals, one notably demonstrates to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” [7]. As Tourism for All [9] reports, “Tourism is important to our lives, we believe that it is the right of disabled people to participate in all areas of community life. As determined by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the benefits of tourism participation by persons with disabilities could boost economic development along with the prosperity of the destination society.
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