Promoting Equality and Inclusion: A MIMIC Model for Assessing Sustainable Tourism and Cultural Experiences for People with Disabilities in Italian Museums

Addressing tourism for all and cultural tourism for people with disabilities is crucial for promoting equality, strengthening the tourism industry, improving the quality of life for people with disabilities, and meeting legal requirements. Around 1.3 billion individuals worldwide experience significant disability, with 5.8% being children and adolescents aged 0-14. Ensuring access to travel and tourism is a fundamental right for all individuals, regardless of their abilities. Promoting more inclusive and accessible tourism experiences can achieve equality and social inclusion for people with disabilities. Cultural tourism, a vital sector of the global tourism market, can improve the quality of life for people with disabilities by facilitating social interaction, community engagement, and personal growth. Cultural tourism can also promote intercultural understanding by providing opportunities for people from different backgrounds to learn about each other's cultures and traditions. Research on children and their families with disabilities is particularly neglected in tourism. The demands and perspectives of this audience and its families still need to be explored at all levels. Significant challenges such as access to travel and tourism opportunities, such as physical barriers, limited access to information, insufficient training of tourism service providers, and negative attitudes towards disability characterize this sustainable tourism line. This exploratory study focuses on a systematic sample of 300 Italian museums. It proposes a MIMIC model for measuring the impact of sustainable tourism based on the analysis of the links between the satisfaction of visitors and their accessibility to the museum.