How Dijon is Making Tourism Accessible for All

Europe’s hilly, winding cobblestone streets are beautiful but challenging for those with mobility issues.

The city of Dijon in France is hoping to change that and has several initiatives to make the city easily enjoyable for all, as Travel Market Report Canada learned during Rendez-vous in France last month.

“Dijon is very accessible, it’s very easy to get around for the mobility challenged,” Emanuelle Hezard, Director of PR for Bourgogne-Franche-Conete-Tourism (the region Dijon is in) explained. “Many tourist sites in Dijon and its region are accessible, including the International City of Gastronomy and Wine.”

In recent years, Dijon has adapted for the mobility challenged, with more hotels and monuments becoming accessible. Its public transportation network is widely accessible with low-floor buses and trams, with some stops having additional guides for wheelchair users and floor markings.

The Dijon Tourist Office offers assistance for renting wheelchairs for daily, multiple days and even monthly rentals, depending on traveller needs and there is assistance available for those who need help getting on the train after arriving at the airport.

“There are wheelchairs at the railway station, so it’s easy for people arriving from Paris, for example. And someone from TGV (railway line) will assist and bring them out of the train to meet the wheelchair in Dijon for the transfer. It’s very easy.”

When we wondered about the potential difficulty in assisting someone in a wheelchair to get around the old city’s infrastructure, Hezard smiled.

“They’re electric.”

Making travel accessible for all is one of Atout France’s overall initiatives and advisors can learn more them via the latest France Connoisseur program modules which are designed to help travel professionals better understand and support travellers with different accessibility needs.

“We have new modules now coming on sustainable tourism and accessible tourism,” said Melanie Paul-Hus, Director, Canada, for Atout France. “We hope that the agents sign up to keep in touch, keep informed.”

Hezard says Dijon would like to expand its accessibility options to other regions and are looking for Canadian partners and tour operators to assist with growing its accessible program.

“I think it would be great to have a company we would be able to work with and deliver the wheelchair in another town, for example. We could expand our offerings.

We would be very happy for that to be a possibility.”