On a day to day basis, people with disabilities live in a largely disabling environment. (Lovelock & Lovelock, 2013)

Studies in tourism industry show lower participation rate for people with disabilities, however, when people with disability do travel, their experiences are still highly restricted by different types of barriers like physical accessible barriers such as transportation, inaccessible accommodation, activities and destinations (Lovelock & Lovelock, 2013). Moreover,(Church & Coles, 2007) indicates that 40% of people with disabilities cannot go on holiday during any one year for various reasons.

According to my research 31.96% of people with disability travel less than once a year, and 38.14% are able to go on a holiday once or twice a year. 46.39% of participants said that one of the reasons they do not travel as much as they like, is the lack of availability of accessible destination, 46.39% said that the lack of availability of accessible accommodation is preventing them from travelling, 34.02% mentioned the lack of accessible attraction and 26.80% said that the lack of suitable activities is to blame among other reasons (figure 1).

Considering these studies, it appears that the tourism industry is facing some challenges in addressing the disabling environment and the problems it causes for people with disabilities. (Lovelock & Lovelock, 2013)

(Lovelock & Lovelock, 2013) suggest that in order to create a successful accessible business and to follow the human rights and to answer the growth of the industry, tourism providers should remove barriers which are experienced by tourists with disabilities, these barriers include,

• Physical barriers such as inaccessible facilities and building
• Inaccessible information, for instance, small fonts, inaccurate/incomplete information
• lack of disability awareness and negative staff attitudes
• Lack of upgrades for accessible services

(Church & Coles, 2007) includes that removing and reducing barriers is not only a must to address equal rights and opportunities and non-discrimination but also on contributing to economic growth.

All aspect of tourism industry still needs to work on improving on all aspect of accessibility especially historical and natural sites, despite the legal and human rights requirement to address the need of people with disabilities, they are still having a long way to go to cater for people with disabilities. (Lovelock & Lovelock, 2013)

Tourism spaces may seem to be accessible more than ever, but this is due to the symbolic meaning of accessibility, they actually can be restricted based on the experience of people with disabilities. On question 7 of my survey, I have asked ‘Have there ever been any types of accommodation that you have been unable to stay at due to lack of accessibility? If yes, what were the types of accommodation and how did this affect your holiday?’ the baseline of all responses showed un-satisfaction and, in some cases, great difficulty, for instance, one of the responses suggested that famous holiday brands can get the basics wrong as well and there is no constancy in the industry. Another comment indicated that the person with disabilities was unable to travel due to the lack of plug next to the bed to connect their ventilator[1]. Other comments can be listed from unfair prices, not being able to use promotions, lack of accurate information, to unprofessional attitude.

My suggestion for the industry and hoteliers is that if they start hiring expert with disability to survey their location’s accessibility and acting on the comment made to resolve the issues, they can reduce the complaints received due to lack of suitable accessibility and it will be a good promotion for their business, which can create healthy revenue.

 

[1] a machine that supports breathing

*PWD: People With Disabilities

 

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References

Church, A., & Coles, T. (2007). Tourism, Power and Space. New York: Routledge.

Lovelock, B., & Lovelock, K. M. (2013). The Ethics of Tourism. London: Routledge.