Accessible tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “access­ible tourism”.

Access­ible tour­ism “(also known as “Access Tour­ism”, “Uni­ver­sal Tour­ism”, “Inclus­ive Tour­ism”^ and in some coun­tries such as in Japan “Bar­ri­er-free Tour­ism”) is tour­ism and travel that is access­ible to all people, with dis­ab­il­it­ies or not, includ­ing those with mobil­ity, hear­ing, sight, cog­nit­ive, or intel­lec­tu­al and psychoso­cial dis­ab­il­it­ies, older per­sons and those with tem­por­ary dis­ab­il­it­ies” ― Takayama Declar­a­tion, UNESCAP, 2009. ^ When referred to by The “Good Tour­ism” Blog, “inclus­ive tour­ism” means the same as OECD’s defin­i­tion of “inclus­ive growth” as it per­tains to the tour­ism sector.

Access­ible tour­ism refers to the prac­tice of design­ing tour­ism exper­i­ences and ser­vices that cater to the needs of people with dis­ab­il­it­ies or oth­er access­ib­il­ity needs. This grow­ing mar­ket seg­ment rep­res­ents a sig­ni­fic­ant oppor­tun­ity for the tour­ism industry to expand its cus­tom­er base and gen­er­ate great­er rev­en­ue while also con­trib­ut­ing to social inclusion.

The bene­fits of access­ible tour­ism are man­i­fold. Firstly, it enables people with dis­ab­il­it­ies to fully par­ti­cip­ate in tour­ism activ­it­ies and enjoy travel exper­i­ences that were pre­vi­ously inac­cess­ible to them. Secondly, it allows des­tin­a­tions and tour­ism busi­nesses to tap into a new and poten­tially luc­rat­ive mar­ket seg­ment. Access­ible tour­ism can help to pro­mote social inclu­sion by break­ing down bar­ri­ers and ste­reo­types and fos­ter­ing great­er under­stand­ing and acceptance.

There are many ways in which tour­ism busi­nesses and des­tin­a­tions can make their offer­ings more access­ible. For example, hotels can provide access­ible rooms with fea­tures such as wider doors, grab bars, and roll-in showers. Res­taur­ants can offer menus in Braille or large print, and attrac­tions can provide audio guides or sign lan­guage inter­pret­a­tion. In addi­tion, trans­port­a­tion pro­viders can ensure that their vehicles are wheel­chair access­ible and that staff are trained to provide assist­ance to pas­sen­gers with disabilities.

Truly access­ible tour­ism requires a deep under­stand­ing of the needs and pref­er­ences of trav­el­lers with dis­ab­il­it­ies and a com­mit­ment to ongo­ing innov­a­tion and improve­ment. For example, some hotels are exper­i­ment­ing with the use of tech­no­logy to cre­ate ‘smart rooms’ that can be cus­tom­ised to meet the needs of indi­vidu­al guests, while oth­ers are work­ing with loc­al dis­ab­il­ity organ­isa­tions to ensure that their offer­ings are truly rep­res­ent­at­ive of the needs of the community.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. You may, of course, dis­agree with the tags applied (or not applied) to a post. If so, please feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

Mission vision: Accessible, inclusive tourism for the visually impaired

July 12, 2017

Accessible and inclusive tourism for the visually impaired. Training.

A truly access­ible and inclus­ive tour­ism industry should view people with dis­ab­il­it­ies, such as visu­al impair­ment, the same as any­one else — as a poten­tially luc­rat­ive mar­ket seg­ment and a pro­duct­ive and innov­at­ive human resource — accord­ing to A Lajwanti Naidu in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Sens­ory organs play a vital role in life. Among them, eyes are probably […]

Read More Mission vision: Accessible, inclusive tourism for the visually impaired

Sunshine Coast, Queensland looks to accessible tourism

June 2, 2017

The Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia is looking at becoming universally accessible. Source: My Sunshine Coast

The Sun­shine Coast in Queens­land, Aus­tralia is look­ing at becom­ing a uni­ver­sally access­ible tour­ism des­tin­a­tion. With one in five Queenslanders hav­ing a dis­ab­il­ity and an age­ing pop­u­la­tion using more mobil­ity aids, every­day access to facil­it­ies on the Sun­shine Coast is becom­ing increas­ingly dif­fi­cult, accord­ing to the Sun­shine Coast Coun­cil. The Coun­cil will host an Inclusive […]

Read More Sunshine Coast, Queensland looks to accessible tourism

Kerala tourism director Kiran a champion of accessibility

May 24, 2017

When it comes to accessibility, Kerala Tourism refuses to be a backwater. Source: Kerala Tourism

A Dir­ect­or at the Depart­ment of Tour­ism in the Indi­an state of Ker­ala is lead­ing by example by mak­ing all state-admin­istered tour­ism facil­it­ies access­ible to all. The Times of India reports that in line with its policy of “bar­ri­er-free tour­ism”, the Ker­ala tour­ism depart­ment will make all its facil­it­ies, includ­ing parks and hotels, “dis­­­abled-friendly” before taking […]

Read More Kerala tourism director Kiran a champion of accessibility