Category: Travel and Tourism

Tourism promotion: representing people with disability

two people stand in front of racks of tourism brochures.Promotional material continues to under-represent the diversity of the population. We’ve been so used to seeing white faces in advertisements that to see anything other is a surprise. But is that the response marketing experts want? Then there are the stereotypical images, especially related to older people and people with disability. People with disability also like to travel, often within a family group. So how well are these, and other groups, represented in promotional material?  

A recent research project in the US critically assessed promotional materials: brochures, rack cards, websites and online booking platforms. They found that fifty per cent mentioned disability in some form. This included “disabled” and “handicapped”, “wheelchair” and “special needs”. They found that outdated language remained the norm. Indeed, some language was considered harmful for people with disability. 

The title of the article is, Beyond accessibility: exploring the representation of people with disabilities in tourism promotional materials. 

The article covers some important ground in the area of inclusive tourism. Promotional material gives an impression of a destination or venue. Visual and textural representations were either absent or stereotypical. Industry as a whole has been slow to respond to what is estimated to be 25% of the prospective market. Their promotional material reinforces their lack of interest in this market.

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.

Accessible Acropolis: Heritage meets Access

A wide and level pathway leads to the Parthenon on the Acropolis.If Greece can make one of their most ancient heritage sites accessible then there are no excuses for others. Besides, everyone should have the opportunity to share in a nation’s culture and heritage. Smooth surfaces and lots of free space makes a visit to the famous Acropolis enjoyable for everyone. 

The project was not approached from a maintenance perspective; that is, upgrading paths built at least fifty years ago. The pathways follow archaeological findings over the years, restoring the ancient route of the Panathenaic Way. 

The brief article in the Greek Reporter provides a little more information with two videos. An explanatory video is in Greek and without English subtitles. However, the four minute video gives a good idea of the access improvements regardless of language. A new lift replaces the one installed for the Paralympic and Olympic Games in 2004. Good news for those who visited Athens for the Games. 

However, not everyone agreed to the changes to make the place more accessible. 

 

Come-In! Guidelines for Museums

The graphic depicts the service chain that begins at arrival, all the elements and amenities at the museum to the shop and the exit.Not all museums are grand institutions such as the British Museum. Volunteers run many small museums which rely on  donations and entry fees. So, upgrading premises, exhibits and interpretive signage to be accessible to all poses challenges. But legal obligations require adjustments to provide accessibility. It also means that people with disability can join as volunteers more easily. The Come-In! Guidelines from Europe tackles some of the issues for small and medium-sized museums. 

Come-in! Guidelines provide a practical way forward for small and medium-sized museums. It lays down some principles to guide processes and to meet legal obligations. Language, the “service chain” and staff training are the key aspects of the guidance.

The principles include:

    • Disabled people have a right to be included in all the activities of museums and galleries.
    • Museums and galleries should engage in a dialogue with people with disabilities to find out what they need and wish, and how to deliver it.
    • Identify barriers to access for people with disability and remove them
    • Universal design principles should be the basis for inclusive practice in museums and galleries.
    • Adopt inclusive  practice to ensure disability issues are included in all areas of a museum or gallery’s activities.
    • This process must be ongoing, long-term, achievable and sustainable. The museum’s policies and strategic planning should reflect inclusive practice.

The European Union acknowledges its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The information in this guideline is good for any attraction or tourist destination. The Come-In! Guidelines are detailed and practical, and not just policy words. 

If you have difficulty downloading the document from Academia, you can download the PDF directly. 

The graphic is from the Guidelines. 

Social Tourism is inclusive tourism

A group of colourfully dressed children sit around the edge of the classroom. There are posters on the wall with Spanish writing. This is one aspect of social tourism.
Tourists visit a rural school in Peru

Getting away from it all is something we all need for our health and wellbeing. But not everyone has the means of doing this. Being excluded as a tourist goes beyond physical and other levels of capability. It extends to people without the money to have a holiday. But it goes further than that. In developed countries the concept is applied to people looking for low cost tourism. In developing countries the focus is on the visited community rather than the visitor. This is “social tourism”.

The concept of social tourism has changed over time. It can help both the visitor and the visited community under the banner of Tourism for All. Socially sustainable tourism, community-based tourism and volunteering tourism have also fallen under the banner of social tourism. Consequently, in the literature, it is not clearly expressed as tourism for people who are disadvantaged. 

The title of the article is, Inclusions and Exclusions of Social Tourism.  Also available from ResearchGate where you can find related articles.

From the abstract

The term ‘social tourism’ has been ambiguously interpreted since its inception in the early 20th century, when the focus of tourism was mainly for the financially disadvantaged and socially excluded travellers. Such concept was indeed important to increase social participation in tourism through social and political interventions.

This study attempts to describe three aspects of social tourism: (a) how social tourism is perceived in different socio-cultural and geographical settings; (b) what are the excluded elements of social tourism; and (c) change in demography of potential socially excluded groups. The study also explains the trends of special forms of tourism and its relevance to social tourism inclusion. 

See also the book, Handbook of Social Tourism. The synopsis reads, “This thought-provoking Handbook considers the impact and challenges that social tourism has on people’s lives, integrating case studies from around the world. Showcasing the latest research on the topic and its role in tackling the challenges of tourism development, chapters explore the opportunities presented by social tourism and illustrate the social imperative of tourism as a force for good”.

Better bus stops

The roadway is marked with the words "bus stop" in yellow lettering. Let's have better bus stops.How difficult can designing a bus stop be? Turns out there are lots of elements to consider. Bus stops are one element of an accessible and inclusive travel chain. Each country has their own format or standards for bus stops. But this doesn’t help visitors who are unfamiliar with the design and how it works. 

Accessible bus stops are more than a stop sign and perhaps a seat with a shelter. It has to fit within an accessible urban environment. Footpath materials, information and communication and street furniture all have a part to play. A bus stop outside an airport in Portugal is the subject of a case study. The researchers looked specifically at older travellers. They were able to compare bus stops back home with the one at the airport and give useful feedback and share ideas. Portugal is a favourite destination within Europe so there were many comparisons.

The results were generally consistent across the responses regardless whether the respondent had a disability. Many of the responses were fairly obvious, such as barrier-free footpaths and no obstacles around the bus stop. Shelters with seats at a suitable height and easy to read timetables rated as important. Of course, a bus stop is useless if you can’t use the bus, so low floor buses were important. 

The paper is titled, An Evaluation of the Universal Accessibility of Bus Stop Environments by Senior Tourists. It was published in the International Information and Engineering Technology Association. It is open access.

See also:

Contributions of tourism to social inclusion of persons with disability for more about inclusive tourism in Portugal. 

Tactile paving surfaces at bus stops. The need of homogeneous technical solutions for accessible tourism.

From the abstract

Sustainable mobility demands an integrated approach covering all modes of transport in a built environment designed for everyone. Social inclusion strategies requires the improvement of transportation for people with reduced mobility. Accessibility is incorporated into urban renovation processes, settlement, housing and transportation.

Assessments measured the performance of spatial indicators and considered technical parameters and/or user perception. In the context of accessible tourism, infrastructures and services were adapted to be inclusive for all.

Accessible built environments are required hence urban spaces, buildings, transport vehicles, information technology & communication, and services must bear in mind the approach of Age Sensitive Design.

The research project Accessibility for All in Tourism focuses on bus stops designed to be age-friendly and inclusive. A questionnaire was developed for tourist aged 60+ about their perceptions of bus stop environments in their countries.

Findings indicate that older tourists with disabilities are more critical of the existing accessibility conditions, and have a greater perception of the inclusive characteristics of bus stops. Although older people take barrier-free spaces into account, there is some criticism around pedestrian crossings, bench design and the lack of room for wheelchair users.

Queensland Inclusive Tourism Guide

Front cover of the Queensland Inclusive Tourism Guide showing a man in a red shirt with his arms outstretched.The introduction to the Queensland Government’s guide, Inclusive Tourism: Making your business more accessible and inclusive, begins, “This guide has been developed primarily for tourism operators, to help them:

    • increase their knowledge about the market for accessible tourism
    • develop strategies to improve the accessibility of their operation to appeal to a wider range of visitors of all abilities and ages
    • understand their legal obligations in relation to inclusive and accessible tourism.

The guide also includes information to assist people with disability in planning a holiday. Local government can use this guide to: support and promote inclusive tourism across businesses, festivals, events and public spaces; and to incorporate inclusive and accessible design into their design codes and planning guidelines. 

Download the 2017 Inclusive Tourism Guide from the link on the Queensland Government website.

See also the 2017 UTS Inclusive Tourism publication explaining the economics of inclusive tourism.

Dementia-friendly tourism: a guide

An older couple stand on a railway platform. A row of train carriages is in the background.Making your accommodation, business or tourist attraction dementia-friendly is not difficult. It just takes a bit of extra thought. Once you get the idea of what sorts of things matter, it becomes easy to do.

A guide from the Visit England project covers these topics so business can understand and prepare for people with dementia, and their families. It’s easy to read with really simple things to do that will help, such as a simple bedside clock, avoiding shiny reflective surfaces, and wild bold patterns for bed covers and carpets. Case studies highlight the value of these small but important details. 30 pages including lots of pictures. The guide includes sections on:

Why become dementia friendly
What is dementia?
Living well with dementia
Information
People
Place
What can I do next?

Dementia inclusive tourism

A literature review examined how well tourism industries are recognising neurodiverse audiences. Including people living with dementia expands the customer base and contributes to customer wellbeing. 

People living with dementia, including carers, have leisure lives but there are many barriers to activities. The review is extensive and frames recommendations for:

    • travel and holidays,
    • taking trips in the car
    • transport terminals and interchanges
    • air travel
    • Cruising
    • Hospitality and accommodation

The title of the 2024 review is, Dementia as a global challenge: Progress and prospects for creating more dementia-inclusive tourism industries. 

From the abstract

Global Grand Challenges (GCs) have received only a limited attention within the tourism literature. This Progress paper examines one such GC – dementia and the contribution that tourism research can make to helping people live well with dementia.

Using the concept of the visitor journey and the social model of disability, the paper reviews progress towards creating a more dementia-inclusive society. Using the auspices of tourism research, we review the contributions to date and where the interconnections with dementia and tourism exist.

The review draws from a wide interdisciplinary framework including health, medicine, travel medicine and leisure. We argue for a greater use of transdisciplinary approaches to address GCs.

Accessible Tourism – Is that Inclusive?

Martin Heng sits in a chair and there is an elephant closeby. He fist-bumps the elephant's trunk. ant using its trunk.There’s a growing realisation that accessibility does not equal inclusion. Getting in and out of somewhere is only the beginning. Being able to participate on an equal basis requires inclusive thinking and design. This includes the tourism sector. Being accessible is not the same as being inclusive.

Martin Heng, formerly of Lonely Planet, has an article in New Mobility that addresses this issue from a tourism perspective. He argues that the term “Accessible Tourism” is unhelpful. It has helped identify a market segment in economic terms, and some operators are on board. But it only goes so far. Change is slow and piecemeal. 

Heng’s article is titled, “It’s Time to Move Beyond Access to Inclusion“.  He concludes his article by saying we need to go beyond market segment ideas. We need to encourage the tourism industry to adopt an inclusive mindset. 

Language and labelling is important. Choosing the right terms can make a big difference. “Accessible” is strongly linked with disability – particularly wheelchair users. “Inclusive” makes us think more broadly – families, people from diverse backgrounds, children and older people. 

There are more articles and guidelines on inclusive tourism on this website.

Image courtesy of New Mobility showing Martin Heng interacting with an elephant.

Inclusive Towns: business, tourism and employment

Front cover of the Inclusive Towns Guide.The Inclusive Towns project was about increasing the participation and inclusion of people with disability as customers and employees in small business. The project was a partnership between the City of Greater Bendigo, Loddon Shire & Mount Alexander Shire in Victoria. Initially, the project was supported by a website, but this has been replaced by the Inclusive Towns Guide. The booklet has information business, tourism and employment. Three key areas are inclusive communication, physical environment and disability awareness. The guide is about:

• Why Inclusive Towns is important for your business
• Your legal responsibilities
• Disability statistics
• Tips on how your business can be more accessible and inclusive
• How you can use the Inclusive Towns logo
• Where you can go to get more information

A wheelchair user enters the frame on the left hand side. The background is a blurred out cafe setting.

You can find more articles on accessible and inclusive tourism on this website. 

 

Inclusive Outdoor Recreation

A man with a backpack is walking down a path on a hillside. What does the international research on accessible nature-based tourism say? That’s what researchers in Sweden checked out.  Nine major themes emerged for inclusive outdoor recreation:

      1. employee attitudes towards people with disability
      2. accessibility of tourism websites and information systems
      3. accessible transportation, accommodation and tourist attractions
      4. technical solutions
      5. experience, motivations and constraints in tourism settings for people with disability
      6. tourism for the families and carers of people with disability
      7. tourism and leisure activities for older people
      8. the accessible tourism market
      9. nature-based tourism and outdoor recreation

This review found that existing research took the perspective of the consumer rather than the tourism operator. The report goes into more detail on the nine factors. It includes evidence from USA, Europe, UK and Sweden. The title of the report is, Enhancing Accessibility in Tourism & Outdoor Recreation: A Review of Major Research Themes and a Glance at Best Practice.

An very academic article, but with important findings. The key point – we need more research on businesses rather than consumers. 

Access to natural waterfronts

Timber planked pier leading to the ocean. Access to natural waterfront landscapes.Natural landscapes generally receive less attention than landscape architecture. So it is good to see that three Hungarian researchers have taken a serious look at the issues. Their study took the perspective of tourism and looked at tourist habits. They list some of the factors that need to be specifically considered for access to natural waterfront landscapes, including beaches.

The list of factors covers mobility, vision, and hearing. Parking and approach, jetties, pontoons, bathing, and fishing are all discussed. Several photographs show good examples of accessibility.

“If inclusive design and nature conservation principles are taken into consideration from the very beginning of the whole design process, access to waterfront landscapes can be spreaded [sic], and the natural values of the landscape remain existing and provide the experience of nature for the human race.”

The title of the article is “Access to Waterfront Landscapes for Tourists Living with Disabilities“ by Gabriella Szaszák , Albert Fekete and Tibor Kecskés. It’s open access. 

Swim, Sail, Relax

Front cover showing two people surfing in black wet suits. One is laying down on the board the other is standing on it.Having fun in the sand and surf is the iconic Australian pastime. But not everyone gets an opportunity to join in the fun and swim, sail and relax. The Association of Consultants in Access, Australia newsletter features articles and case studies on beach access, sailing, a resort for people with spinal cord injury, and provisions for people with autism. Plus the general news of the association. The articles mainly feature specialist activities and designs, such as the resort. But that is all part of creating an inclusive society.

The newsletter is available online where you can choose to view online through Issuu or download a PDF version (7MB).

 

Related to outdoor recreation is Agri-Tourism

People are looking at bright orange pumpkins piled in rows in a field on a farm A well designed conference poster published by Ohio State University encapsulates the key points. 

The poster poses this question: “Ohio has almost 700 farms with an agritourism feature, which brings visitors to vineyards, orchards, and corn mazes, but are these farms welcoming to everyone?” Using photos it explains how to make farms and vineyards more accessible to everyone. Tasmania also has an Agritourism Strategy, but it doesn’t say anything about inclusion and accessibility. 

Visitable Victoria

Front cover of the kit showing ballooning. Listed as one of the world’s most liveable cities, Melbourne is now aiming to be the most visitable. Visit Victoria and Destination Melbourne have produced resources for both business and visitors. For businesses yet to get on board with being visitable, the individual visitor pages serve as examples of what to look for and what actions to take. 
Accessible Tourism – it’s your business resource kit has six short chapters with case studies:

Discover what you are missing
Explore your local area
Make low cost changes
Assess your building a facilities
Describe your business
Promote your business
Develop a business plan

The PDF version of the kit with graphics has not thought about accessibility of the document in terms of font contrast. However, the Word version addresses this and also reminds us that not all people can access a PDF document.

The Word version cuts out all the graphics and is not only more accessible for screen readers, it is also a better version for printing pages for checklists.

A separate website, Accessible Victoria has specific information and more links. And one specifically for Melbourne also has brief information and more links.