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:
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- 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
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:
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- 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.
Other guides
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?
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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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. https://youtu.be/dn7yiTgsJFs
More guidebooks to browse
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.