The tourism sector continues to follow the medical model of disability where it’s the fault of the individual’s body rather than the design of the world around them. This approach affects the language used in promotional material. It also reinforces the mistaken idea that accessible “products” need to be special and separate. Stefania Gandin’s article looks at the language used in the tourism sector and the way tourism and travel is promoted.
Disability as a human characteristic and not being afraid to talk about it in promotional material and websites is essential. Or, of developing only specialised disability-specific products as being “accessible tourism”. The underpinning principle of inclusive tourism is being able to independently enjoy holiday or leisure time without any barriers or problems. The move from the terminology of “accessible” tourism to “inclusive” tourism could also help.
There will always be a need for specialist tourism products, particularly for people with physical disabilities who want adventure activities. But this does not cover everyone, including people with health conditions who want to travel in groups. After all, many disabilities are invisible.
The title of the chapter is, Tourism, Promotion and Disability: Still a (Linguistic) Taboo? A Preliminary Study. The chapter is from Innovative Perspectives on Tourism Discourse and can be purchased separately. It can also be accessed via ResearchGate where you can ask the author for a copy.
From the abstract
This study aims to discover the main linguistic features characterising the promotion of tourism for travellers with disability.
Although accessible tourism represents an important sector in the market, detailed research on the language of tourism for people with disability remains limited and mainly tends to focus on the problems of physical access rather than considering the ways to improve its promotional strategies.
We investigated the relevant linguistic features of promotional materials advertising holidays and tourist services for people with disability. Then we related them to the communicative strategies of other marketing materials dedicated to the standard and translational language of tourism.
We show how mainstream tourism discourse still considers disability as a taboo topic, mostly ignoring or vaguely mentioning it in the general promotion of tourist destinations. New language is suggested to stylistically improve and further the accessible tourism sector within overall tourism promotion.