The European Commission – DG Justice and DG Enterprise and Industry – will celebrate on 3 and 4 December 2013, the “European Day of Persons with Disabilities” and the “European Tourism Day” 2013 with the Joint Conference on “Accessible Tourism in Europe” The aim of this two-fold event is to raise awareness on the right of everybody to have equal access to tourism services and destinations and to present some success stories and best practices in the field. Tourism is an important source of growth for the economy in Europe, representing today 1.8 million businesses and approximately 9.7 million jobs. However, travelling can still be a real challenge for some people as finding the information on services, checking luggage on a plane, booking an accessible room often prove to be difficult, costly and time consuming. The conference is part of the EU’s wider efforts to promote the mainstreaming of disability issues in line with the EU Disability Strategy 2010-2020 and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). Source: European Commission