Travel and Tourism Archives

Future of tourism should be accessible

While the tourism industry thinks “accessible tourism” is for a separate type of customer, the concept of equity and inclusion will remain elusive. Assumptions and biases show up in our language, and those who are on the wrong end of these biases are the ones to call it out. Ryan Smith called out this bias when he saw a Tourism Australia infographic depicting the future of tourism and made his own infographic.

The Tourism Australia infographic depicts six strands, adventure, wellness, youth, agritourism, accessible, and events. The bias is in the assumption that the five other strands aren’t going to be accessible. However, the graphic shows sustainability and Indigenous culture across all six of the strands.

Tourism Australia's infographic showing accessible tourism as a separate entity. — Tourism Australia’s view of the Future of Tourism

Ryan Smith reproduced the infographic to bring the concepts into the 21st Century. The five strands are depicted as resting on three key elements: Accessible, Indigenous, Sustainable. He also replaced the photographs with icons for an easier read.

Ryan Smith's version showing Accessible as part of all other types of tourism. — Ryan Smith’s version showing Accessible as part of all other types of tourism.

This is a good example of exposing biases. It also shows why we should involve all stakeholders in publicity and promotion. That’s what makes co-design a good thing for everyone and for business.

Tourism Accessibility Guides

A heritage building in Scotland at night with nice lighting from the windows. Accessibility guides like this encourage more visitors. — One of the attractions from the Visit England website

According to the Visit England website, 63% of tourism businesses do not promote their access provisions for visitors. Yet 95% of visitors with access requirements look for this information before deciding to visit. The website also has advice and help for creating and publishing accessibility guides. It includes sections on photography, and how to create a location map and video guide.

Is your pub accessible?

Picture from front cover of the booklet showing two pubs and a man who is blind using his smartphone to order food. Is your beer accessible?

The British Beer & Pub Association has a straightforward booklet of advice and good case studies for accessibility. It dispels a lot of myths, and many of the adaptations are simple, such as easy to read menus. It covers physical, sensory and cognitive issues that potential customers might have. So joke-type symbols for toilets are not a good idea, as well as understanding that not all disabilities are visible. Excellent resource for any food and beverage venue. As is often the case, it is not rocket science or costly, just thoughtful. The title of the publication is An Open Welcome: Making your pub accessible for customers. “Pubs are places where everyone is welcome. It’s where family, friends and colleagues come together and where tourists to the country feel they will see the true, welcoming Britain”.

ISO Standards for Tourism and Travel

Standards documents are rarely light reading. Similarly to legal documents they aren’t designed for skim reading. And they are rarely in plain language. However, if you can take the time to study standards and understand their structure, they are very helpful. The International Standards Organization (ISO) standards for tourism and travel are a case in point.

Standard for tourism and related services

Tourism is a global enterprise. It makes sense, therefore, for travellers to know what to expect when they go on holiday to any country. This is especially the case for people with disability. ISO recognises the economics of accessible and inclusive travel and consequently devised a standard. As an international standard it is possible to get some consistency across countries to support this growing industry. The title of the standard is, ISO Standard for Tourism and Related Services – Accessible tourism for all – requirements and recommendations. This document is based on the concept of ‘tourism for all”. The aim is to ensure equal access and enjoyment is experienced by everyone. It has key aspects of policy making, strategy, infrastructure, products and services in the tourism supply chain. A related standard is the Standard for Accessible Travel.

Standard for Accessible Travel

The ISO Standard for Accessible Travel has 5 key sections with sub-sections.

- The tourist office – When new to a city, often the first port of call is the tourist information office to make a plan of where to go and what to see. See the section on information offices and reception services.

- Accessibility every step of the journey – Most operators want people to enjoy their experiences. The guidelines for tourism and related services help operators with policy making, strategy, infrastructure, products and services. It’s about the whole tourism supply chain. It’s the overarching guide for tourism services.

- Beaches for all – the requirements and recommendations for beach operation is another subsection. It also outlines recommendations for the design of access ramps and boardwalks, toilets, showers and drinking fountains.

- Tourism for all the senses – Braille is understood all over the world. There is a subsection on the application of Braille signage and for assistive products including tactile ground indicators.

- Accessibility in all standards – The Guide for addressing accessibility in standards is a standard for all other standards. Standards committees should be aware of this standard when they are devising a new standard or updating an old one.

A toolkit from Ireland

The video below shows four case studies that reduced customer complaints and increased sales by following the advice in the toolkit which covers:

Business Objectives and Overview
Written Communication
Face-to-Face, Telephone & Video Communication
Electronic & Web Based Communication

You can see more on the toolkit page of the CEUD website. There is also an Irish Standard, I.S.373:2013 “Universal Design for Customer Engagement in Tourism Services” available from SAI Global. The guide was updated in 2023. Below is one of four videos on the website.

More guidebooks to browse

A man is holding the hand of a small girl as they walk into the surf on a sandy beach. Tourism for All. — *Holidays for all ages*

Guidebooks are a good way to approach a new project especially if you don’t know where to start. After all, why not use the experience of others – no need to re-invent the wheel. Here are a few selected posts on inclusive tourism guidebooks for ready reference. Accessible Tourism for All Manual – UN World Tourism Organization publication. Recommendations on Accessible Tourism – UN World Tourism Organization publication. Inclusive Tourism: Making your business more accessible and inclusive – for operators. Guide from Queensland Make your business accessible – web resource from VisitBritain. Destinations for All: A guide to creating accessible destinations – from VisitEngland. Visits4U Access Guide – this one was funded by the EU. Tourism Australia also has a list of resources on their website.

Access Statement for The Kelpies in Scotland

The Kelpies are 30 metre-high horse-head sculptures in a new parkland area near Falkirk, Scotland. The project connects 16 communities in the council area and the Clyde Canal. The sculptures attract many visitors to The Helix site and the whole project was designed with access and inclusion in mind. This is apparent in the Access Statement for the Kelpies – a good guide for all visitors. And a good example for others devising a similar guide.

The Access Statement for The Helix and the Kelpie sculptures uses plain language and lots of photos. The photos show key places such as car parking, the visitor centre, playground, café and toilets. Visitors can hire manual wheelchairs and dog bowls are provided for assistance dogs.

The Access Statement is not an overarching policy document. It is a visitor guide that includes information about the level of access visitors can expect. One of the best examples of visitor access information – makes it good for everyone.

There is more information about this destination and how to get there on the Accessible Travel Online Scotland website. Accessible Travel Scotland also has an accessible travel hub.

The video below provides more information about The Kelpies, the largest public artworks in Scotland. It explains the story behind the sculptures and their construction.

Australia’s national accessible parks policy

Everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy our national parks. The personal benefits include increased wellbeing and improved quality of life. But not everyone can access these parks. The new Accessible Parks Policy published by the New South Wales Government should go some way to addressing the barriers.

The policy aims to provide a framework for improving access by integrating accessibility into the planning and management of parks.

But once again, we have a document professing to promote access and inclusion yet universal design is tacked on at the end as if it is an optional extra rather than an underpinning concept.

Guiding principles

In brief, the National Parks Service recognises:

- the health and wellbeing benefits
- cultural and historic heritage can present a range of barriers
- barriers to accessing national parks may have compounding impacts on Aboriginal people
- disability is diverse and may not be visible to others
- good information is critical to empowering people with disability
- the inclusion of people with disability in the planning and decision-making process
- people who experience barriers to access should have the opportunity to participate in finding solutions to those barriers
- accessible facilities or experiences in national parks are only one component of the whole visitor journey
- it will not always be feasible to provide physical access to national parks for all people.

Commitments

In brief, the National Parks Service will:

- identify and aim to remove barriers to services, facilities and experiences
- identify and remove barriers to people engaging and collaborating with the management of national parks and reserves
- engage and consult with those experiencing barriers in accessing national parks, visitor facilities and visitor experiences
- where possible, apply the principles of universal design

The webpage has different policy sections for visitor facilities, information, collaborating, and decision making.

Connection to Country is not included in this policy as there is a separate policy document. Perhaps as some point the Department of Planning will take a universal design approach which embraces intersectionality. That is, First Nations people also have disabilities and specific access requirements.

Accessible nature

Are ableist views preventing the tourism and recreation sectors from being accessible and inclusive? This is a question arising from a scoping review of policies, practices and infrastructure related to nature-based settings. The review found many barriers were related to operator or designer assumptions about the value of the experience for people with different disabilities. And “accessible nature” is yet to be expressed in the form of access standards.

Assumptions about value such as “this place is about the view, so why would blind people be interested?” is rarely explicitly expressed. Rather, it is embedded in systems and processes that place barriers, albeit inadvertently, to accessibility for all. But other barriers exist such as threats to conservation values that say, a footpath could impose. Consequently, ways to minimise the negative impacts on both social and ecological aspects should be found when introducing built structures.

A more worrying view is that it is not safe for people with disability to experience certain landscapes. This perpetuates organisational notions that people with disability need extra care or special settings. Or that people with disability can’t or don’t experience nature in the same way as non-disabled people.

From the conclusions

In the conclusions, the authors lament, “Perhaps more troublingly, there are indications that such gaps are intertwined in cultures within the tourism and recreation sector that perpetuate ablest views of what should be considered a genuine and laudable way to experience nature.”

The authors conclude there is a pressing need for specific standards for nature-based tourism and recreation spaces. People developing such standards should ensure they are not underpinned by current ableist views.

The health and wellbeing factors of nature contact are well established. So, it’s important for everyone to have easy access to the experiences nature offers.

The title of the scoping review is, Accessible nature beyond city limits – A scoping review. The authors are based in Canada.

Abstract

The health and well-being benefits of nature contact are well known, but inequitably distributed across society. Focusing on the access needs of persons with a disability, the purpose of this study was to systematically examine research on the accessibility of nature-based tourism and recreation spaces outside of urban/community settings.

Following a scoping review methodology, this study sought to examine policies, services, physical infrastructures, and regulatory standards intended to enable equitable use of nature-based settings by individuals of all ages and abilities, particularly persons with a disability.

In total, 41 relevant studies were identified and analyzed. Findings indicate that there are considerable gaps in the provision of services and information that enable self-determination in the use and enjoyment of nature, and that accessibility in nature-based settings is conceptualized through three interrelated policy/design pathways: the adaptation pathway, the accommodation pathway, and the universal design pathway.

As a whole, accessibility policy and standards research specific to natural settings outside of urban/community settings is highly limited.

Management implications
There are growing calls to promote inclusive nature experiences in tourism and recreation spaces outside of community settings. Management of such spaces must reconcile equity concerns with a host of other priorities like environmental conservation.

In the case of promoting universal accessibility, few studies offer insight into the detailed standards that must be met to create barrier-free access, let alone how to integrate such standards with other management priorities.

Transdisciplinary research partnerships that involve management personnel, environmental and public health researchers, and persons with a disability are needed to identify effective management synergies.

Photo by Jane Bringolf

Creating a walkway with universal design

Lookout towers are usually built with steps, so how can you make them accessible? The answer is of course a ramp, but not just any ramp. The Stovner Tower in Oslo shows how you can create a beautiful walkway with universal design. It curves and loops for 260 metres until it reaches 15 metres above ground. This provides excellent views of the city and landscape beyond. Located on the forest edge it is a destination for everyone to enjoy.

The project is described in detail with several images on the DOGA website. The key part of the design was the co-design process and community consultations. This was essential for gaining community support at the beginning of the project.

The path is wide enough for two prams or wheelchairs to pass each other. The slightly inward sloping railing gives an additional sense of safety. Lighting at night makes it attractive as well as safe and accessible both day and night.

The tower has become a popular destination for both locals and visitors. It’s used for weddings, meditation, exercise, celebrations and encourages people to experience nature.

This project is an example of collaboration between local government, landscape architects and contractors. Universal design drove both the design process and design outcomes. It won a landscape architecture award for universal design in 2020. There’s a video showing it with snow and lighting on the visitor website.

Norway has universal design written into their planning and zoning codes. Other articles on Norway are:

Inclusive customer to customer experiences in tourism

Visits to heritage sites are more than history and the site itself. It’s also about the interactions you have with others. Most inclusive tourism research has focused on the relationship between the operator and customer. But what about the relationship between visitors with and without disability? Shared settings for visitors create value for all customers and therefore the business. So how can operators facilitate inclusive customer to customer experiences?

Chiscano and Darcy used a heritage site for a qualitative study on customer to customer interactions. The aim of the research was to find out how people with and without disability share an experience. They also wanted to know how the interactions created value for the customers. Their paper is very academic with lots of theory and methods. It uses the language of “value outcome” and “social practices”.

Interactions were observed and participants reported on their interactions throughout the experience. The article reports in detail their findings of interactions that include and exclude. The concluding section has a table of quotes by participants which includes participant feedback on how they felt.

The article concludes with advice for heritage and cultural site managers. Operators can facilitate positive outcomes for visitors with and without disability by changing some of their processes. Providing support tools for people with different disability types before the activity is very helpful. People with disability enjoy their experience more if they can share it with other visitors with or without disability.

Everyone wins with inclusion

Bottom line; operators can benefit from customer to customer interactions and shared resources to create value for the business.

Simon Darcy wrote a post on Linked In: “Tourism is as much about the interactions you have with others as it is about the sites you are seeing and quite often people with disability have segregated experiences because of the lack of innovative service development that incorporates co-design and universal design principles within all service and product development.”

The title of the article is, C2C co-creation of inclusive tourism experiences for customers with disability in a shared heritage context experience.

Accessible tourism organisations

Should we call it ‘inclusive tourism’ or ‘accessible tourism?’ Well that depends. If it is a destination or activity specifically designed for people with disability then it’s accessible. If it is a mainstream service AND it is fully accessible for everyone then it’s inclusive. There is a place for both. However, inclusive in this context is not to be confused with “all inclusive” products and services where the price includes everything.

Specialist organisations

Here is a list of some accessible tourism organisations that are specifically for people with disability.

Accessible Accommodation is a find and book website with good visual and video information about the properties. You can subscribe to their newsletter.

Getaboutable is a social enterprise focused on travel and leisure for people with disabilities. It offers a platform to promote inclusive tourism and travel businesses around the world.

Have Wheelchair Will Travel is a website where a family shares their travel experiences to help others. They also share day-to-day tips and other activities in between. They produce a magazine titled, Travel Without Limits.

Distinctive Options Travel (DO Travel) has a focus on disability specific holidays, stays and tours. This is an extension of their NDIS services. They have group tours.

Travability provides accessible travel information.The Destinations section of the website has plenty to offer travellers. There is also a news and resource section for the traveller and the tourism sector.

iSCREAM Travel provides tailored travel adventures from booking the holiday, hiring equipment, and connecting with care assistance. They say “you shouldn’t have to travel with the kitchen sink”.

Push Adventures is based in South Australia and offers services to the tourism sector to improve their accessibility. The blog page has information on various destinations for travellers. They have a showcase of 101 Awesome Accessible Adventures in Australia.

Go Wheel the World is an international travel organisation that will find and book holiday experiences.

The Access Agency has a travel blog, Freewheel Weekends with stories and a directory of places and venues in Melbourne.

In New Zealand

Grab Your Wheels Let’s Travel is a blog site for travellers. It has a list of activities and accommodation. The site has a good example of how to describe a wheelchair accessible hotel and room.

Making Trax is an adventure tourism site for travellers and operators.

Ability Adventures is a specialist travel company providing tailored itineraries.

More on travel and tourism

There are many research papers and business guides on travel and tourism on this website. The emphasis of the research is on the missed business opportunities for operators. The guides are devised to help operators improve their accessibility.

Lake Macquarie Cabins

The pictures on the Council website show the cabins. This is also a good example of how information should be presented for wheelchair users to know just what is, and what is not, included. Saying something is “fully accessible” is of little use – it might only have a ramp and nothing else.

It should be noted that these are bespoke designs specifically for wheelchair users. However, there is no reason why non-wheelchair users can’t use them.

3 key changes for hotels and airlines

A lot has been written about accessible and inclusive tourism. It’s a pity we are still writing. Economic evidence, training packages, and guidelines have made some progress over the years. But we are not there yet. And it gets more complex. We’ve moved on from a ramp for wheelchair access to considering many other disabilities. Here are 3 key changes for hotels and airlines for people with cognitive conditions.

Fodor’s travel blog has an article on how travel companies can make people with cognitive conditions feel welcome. People who are neurodiverse, have a mental health condition or an intellectual disability like to travel too.

First, don’t assume you know what neurodiverse people need based on one person you know who is autistic.

Secondly, train your staff. A ramp and automatic door do not compensate for the fear or discomfort in the eyes of a frontline person who is alarmed or rude to a person who displays neurodiversity.

Third, offer alternative check-in times for people requiring a low sensory experience for themselves or a member of their family. If that is not feasible perhaps a quiet room to complete the process.

People with cognitive or intellectual disability might need things simplified. That includes things like the check-in process itself, not just writing information in plain language. Streamlined check in and clear information are good for everyone – it’s universal design.

When it comes to airlines, the same things apply, but there is one extra thing. Staff need training on how to handle wheelchairs properly – carefully like golf clubs.

The title of the blog article is How the travel industry can become more accessible for all. It has lots of advertisements which distract from reading.

Airbnb for everyone

Now that Airbnb has taken over Accomable, they are able to offer more information about the accessibility of destinations and places to stay. Airbnb has introduced 24 filters that help travellers find listings that meet their specific needs, including roll-in-showers and step free access to rooms. The Assistive Technology Blog shows in detail how the site can be used.

visits4u Inclusive Tourism

Who is the customer of inclusive tourism? Everyone! This is the introduction to the visits4u Access Guide for tourism operators. The Guide is from Europe. It has a project guide and a short online training course. The good part of this training course is that it comes in text and audio voice-over. A PDF transcription for each module is available for download. The visits4U inclusive tourism training modules are:

1. 1. Hotels and Accommodation Providers, 15 minute video.
  2. D/deaf Awareness, 12 minute video.
  3. Information and Wayfinding, 12 minute video.

While the current pandemic conditions prevail, this is a good time to refresh tourism businesses to make them more inclusive. After all, people often travel in groups and if it’s inaccessible for one, the whole group goes elsewhere.

Case Studies

The European Concept for Accessibility Network tourist guide is based on their Design for All (Universal Design) principles. Each chapter is a case study, and each discusses the seven success factors, and drivers and obstacles. Cities featured in the EU tourist guide are located in Italy, Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain and Australia.

Design for All in Tourist Destinations includes a section on Sydney’s “Cultural Ribbon”, which was written by Simon Darcy and Barbara Almond. Featured is the accessibility of the Sydney Harbour Foreshore precincts, Sydney Opera House, and Darling Harbour.

In the introduction it encourages a business approach rather than a compliance approach. In the past, it was expected that a person would give up their personal goals when it looked too difficult to be inclusive and accessible. But now, we have the technical and organisational means to overcome many barriers. Non-discrimination laws have helped people gain more freedom.

Landscape view of Barangaroo Parkland showing a pedestrian, wheelchair user, cyclist and pram pusher. Mentioned in EU tourist guide. — Barangaroo Parkland on Sydney’s foreshore

Image source: http://www.barangaroo.sydney/accessibility/

Heritage no barrier to accessibility

Medieval cities with cobblestones, castles and Roman city walls are not the most disability-friendly places. And they are not easy to make accessible either. However, heritage is no barrier to accessibility in five European cities. They’ve made accessibility a top priority thanks to technology, design and engineering so that heritage is no barrier to accessibility.

The five cities are the Dutch towns of Breda and Rotterdam, Lyon in France, Slovenia’s Ljubljana, and Chester in the UK. The motivation is that these are popular tourist destinations. These examples show that where there is a will there is a way.

Some of the solutions are:

- lifting cobblestones, slicing them and re-laying them upside down
- an app that lets you tell the council about paving issues and follows progress until the remedial work is completed
- sound beacons that tell blind people when and what bus or tram is pulling into the stop
- an app for the most accessible restaurants, hotels and hotspots
- building cascading ramps to the upper walkways of ancient city walls

Part of the motivation is the tourist trade, both nationally and internationally. However, the EU also takes inclusion seriously and gives access awards to cities that prioritise accessibility in urban planning. The title of the article is Cities without barriers. Heritage is no longer an excuse for exclusion.

Medieval cities need not be “disabled”

When the user of a place or thing is most likely to be a person with disability, it is often labelled “disabled”. But what about places being disabled? “Disabled” in it’s original meaning is something that doesn’t work. So, if the chain of accessibility for everyone is missing, the place is indeed disabled. This was pointed out in an article in The Guardian: “People aren’t disabled, their city is“.

The story is about the Dutch medieval city of Breda – now one of the most accessible in Europe. This is because there is “joined up” access throughout – not a bit here and a bit there. They have pulled up cobblestones and re-laid them upside down to create a flatter surface. Hotels are on board too. The key point is that the local authorities have a commitment to inclusion and accessibility and that’s what makes the difference. The next major step will be improving digital communication. See the article for more information.

How will we know when we have achieved inclusion? It will be the day when separate labelling for places and things is no longer required.

Category: Travel and Tourism

Future of tourism should be accessible

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