Category: Travel and Tourism

How does anyone know whether a tourist attraction or destination is accessible? The Australian Tourism Industry Council runs an accreditation program for tourism businesses to meet certain standards. It’s how businesses get a star rating. Now it has accessibility accreditation for the tourism sector.

Now accredited businesses can do an additional module to add accessibility accreditation to their listing. The module was developed in consultation with TravAbility. It helps businesses evaluate the level of access and inclusion their experiences offer. The aim is to encourage tourism businesses to make adjustments to accommodate people with disability. 

A guide with facts and figures about the business case was prepared for the launch of the accessibility self-assessment module. It includes the needs and aspirations of travellers and how to become accredited. There are sections on the size of the market, what travellers need, eligibility to apply, and the cost of accreditation. The guide also shows how to get started with the assessment.

Quality Tourism accredited businesses can begin their application under the existing Quality Tourism Framework. Other businesses will need to become an accredited before they can access the self-assessment module.

The module was developed by the Queensland Tourism Industry Council for the Australian Quality Tourism Framework. The module assesses provisions for people with:

• • • limited mobility and wheelchair users
    • low vision
    • low hearing
    • cognitive conditions 
    • allergies and intolerances

At the end of the process the business will receive a report that will help identify improvements, and a tailored Accessibility Guide for the provisions already in place. This guide helps potential guests understand what the business offers in terms of access and inclusion. 

 

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.

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. 

 

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.   

 

 

According to almost all tourism brochures, travellers and holiday-makers are white and have no disabilities. This was one of the findings from an analysis of brochures from 228 counties in the American southeast. So few publications had a person with a visible disability in promotional images, they were able to list them in a short table. It would appear pets are more welcome than people with disability.  

Interviews with tourism operators revealed that they thought complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was good enough. They also thought that ‘diversity’ means including more people of colour. 

After looking at 9427 images, there were twelve depicting a person with disability. Of the twelve they found, 7 portrayed older adults, who were in the background or out of focus. The images they found of people with disability were all white.

Many brochures referred to people with disability in their text. However, the terms used were outdated and even harmful, especially ‘handicapped’. Although this is an American study, it is likely that other countries would find, or have found, similar results. 

Key points

ADA compliant is ‘good enough’. Brochures regularly stated they were ‘ADA accessible’ or ‘ADA compliant’. However, there was rarely an explanation of what that meant for a traveller.

Diversity means including more people of colour. People with disability are part of the diversity spectrum. Indeed they are also people of colour. Black/African Americans and Latinx people travel widely yet they are rarely shown in promotional materials. 

Pets are welcome. The welcoming of pets is an upward trend and some hotels actively welcome pets. There were more mentions of pets in brochures than people with disability. 

The authors argue that promotional images are not just about selling a product or service. They convey representations of social groups, including racial and age groupings. This reinforces stereotypes which further marginalise people and exclude others. The lack of people with disability in marketing materials further entrenches them as the invisible minority. 

Title of the article is, Beyond accessibility: exploring the representation of people with disabilities in tourism promotional materials. It’s also available from Taylor and Francis Online.  This study contributes important information for those advocating for inclusive tourism services. 

Editor’s note: Conversely, promotional material for “accessible holidays” regularly shows a wheelchair user. 

Abstract

Globally, over one billion people experience some form of disability. The number of people with disabilities (PWDs) continues to rise due to an ageing population, the spread of chronic diseases, and improvements in measuring disabilities. However, tourism promotional materials continue to perpetuate a homogenous gaze catering to non-disabled audiences. Thus, informed by critical disability theory, and an inclusive tourism approach, this study explores how PWDs are represented in tourism promotional materials, specifically tourism brochures, from the American Southeast.

Through a content analysis of over 200 county-level brochures from nine south-eastern states and interviews with state-level tourism marketing directors, three emergent themes were identified: ADA compliant is ‘good enough’; ‘Diversity’ means including more people of color or ‘ethnic’ groups; and Pets are welcomed but how about PWDs? The findings offer insights for inclusive tourism and breaking down the physical and psychological barriers that hinder PWD participation in travel and tourism.