The following idea was submitted to the Snovalec 2011 call, a national competition for most promising tourism ideas in Slovenia that are brought to life by the help of Slovenian Tourist Board and the Ministry of Economy. Out of 73 submitted ideas it was chosen as one of the 12 most promising.
The thematic path for blind and visually impaired children includes entertainment, motivation, ethnological elements, natural values of the visited place, the cultural heritage of the visited place and creative workshops, all of which should be interpreted in an appropriate manner. It consists of several lots, namely: experiential playground, cooking workshops, creative workshops, the world of fairy tales, learning about the wonders of nature, and sports games. It is of key importance to provide the children with the path that will awaken their senses, being sited at the adventure playground. It consists of seven stations. At each of the stations, there is one specific colour (e.g. red roses, orange teapot, yellow lantern, green blanket, blue bells, purple flag, violet book, etc.) that is dominating. The people mistakenly think that the blind see absolutely nothing. If the colours are intense enough, many people can detect them up close. These colours will be combined with the senses and chakras – at the stations, there are tables / images with brief descriptions that could be written in the Braille alphabet. At the entrance, there is a map or legend as an insight into the path where one is heading – it could be made as a 3D model. The connecting paths between the stations have tunnels, bridges, trails / slalom between trees, climbing walls, swings: these are made from bamboo, and the visitors are braiding the willow branches as they come.
The attached image in the title of the subject idea is outlining the path of the awakening of senses.
A tourist environment can be represented in many ways; above all, it is important that the blind and visually impaired persons are with the proper preparation enabled the most complete, interactive experience of the place visited and have the ability to move freely around the tourist destination, as well as have easy access to and from the place itself. In formulating the tourism offer, one must take into account that there are more than 45 million blind and visually impaired persons in the world today. Thus, one must investigate the barriers that prevent their participation in tourism, as well as understand the positive impacts of tourism on their self-esteem, quality of life, emotional and physical well being, as well as involvement in social and cultural events. I believe that the thematic path for blind and visually impaired children will contribute to the variety of tourism and social offers in Maribor, extremely.
Foto: www.sxc.hu, Author: mihow