Research Purpose:

Preserving the memory of a place through monuments, buildings and historical places is essential to ensure that future generations can have access to these spaces, their history and culture. The challenge of tourist cities that have historic centers listed by historical heritage is to ensure that all people, regardless of having some degree of motor, visual or hearing restriction, can have full access, with autonomy to visit these spaces. Several factors can influence the choice of a route for utilitarian or leisure (tourist) purposes, and the quality and conditions of urban infrastructure aimed at walking can be decisive. In this sense, this article aims to evaluate the walkability quality of a tourist route located in the historic center of the city of Itu, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil.

Methodology:

The methodology uses an index and performance indicators to evaluate the quality of tourist routes aimed at pedestrians, through the category’s sidewalks, facades and crossings.

Findings:

The main problems are related to the lack of security, comfort and accessibility. The proposed index and indicators allow for an analysis of the location by identifying the positive and negative aspects that interfere with pedestrian walkability and make the route difficult for people with mobility, vision, hearing and cognition problems. The results allow municipal managers to propose and implement short and medium-term solutions to improve the spatial quality of these locations.

Originality/Value:

The study revealed that although Brazil has specific legislation and regulations (heritage and accessibility), many problems related to accessibility are still recurrent in some historic centers of tourist cities, which compromises the visitation of tourists and residents.

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