Alicante Municipality Transforms Beach into Fully Accessible Area

Accessibility on beaches is increasingly becoming a concern that more municipalities address during the summer season. In a province like Alicante, where the high season smells of sea salt and sunscreen, ensuring that everyone can enjoy the beaches is a commitment for many towns. This is why a town in Alicante has decided to transform one of its beaches into a fully accessible area.

And rightly so, as the beach popularly known as La Basseta de l'Oli now boasts new, wider accessible walkways. The aim: to improve and expand the services of this bathing area.

The Vila Joiosa Town Council has installed 140 new walkways at the Centro beach, made from sustainable and non-slip materials, with accessible signage. They also feature handrails to ensure universal enjoyment of the beach, regardless of the user's physical or sensory condition.

These walkways are designed to facilitate access to the beach and sea for people with reduced mobility and wheelchair users. The material used, besides being waterproof and easy to handle, requires minimal maintenance, reinforcing its sustainability.

The walkways ease the path from the beach access to the very edge of the sea with a final removable section made from recycled plastic. Additionally, foot showers, showers, and portable toilets have been relocated and adapted, ensuring their integration into the new accessible layout. Accessible information panels with easy reading, Braille, QR codes, and videos in Spanish sign language have also been installed.

The initiative strengthens Villajoyosa's accessibility model, establishing Centro beach as a reference point for accessibility and adapted services. It also positions the municipality as a tourist destination committed to innovation, inclusion, accessibility, sustainability, and continuous improvement of the coastal environment, aligning with the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which establish Villajoyosa as a benchmark in responsible tourism.

This initiative is part of the Tourism Sustainability Plan in Destinations (PSTD), funded with European funds through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan – NextGenerationEU, and aligns with objective 4 of the Tourism Sustainability Strategy of the Valencian Community 2020-2025, contributing to improving the quality of tourist services and reinforcing Villajoyosa's commitment to accessibility and sustainability.

The initiative reinforces Villajoyosa's accessibility model, establishing Centro beach as a reference point for accessibility and adapted services, while also positioning the municipality as a destination committed to innovation and continuous improvement of the coastal environment.

The Councillor for Beaches, Carlos Soler, explains that "the installation of these walkways responds to the need to develop infrastructures that guarantee accessibility and contribute to increasing the satisfaction of visitors and residents. These same walkways have also been installed at Paradís beach. Both Paradís beach and Centro beach are two of the most emblematic locations in the municipality, which this summer are already being enjoyed more equitably by everyone, regardless of their physical abilities. Therefore, Villajoyosa improves the accessibility of its coast and promotes a more responsible and inclusive tourism model."