Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

Leicester City Council has joined online access guide DisabledGo to provide a guide
to Leicester for anyone who wants to know more about disabled access in the area.  The guide covers more than  1,000 venues including cinemas, hotels, parks, leisure centres, council offices, high street stores, restaurants, and tourist attractions, amongst other things.  The guide will enable people to find out not only whether venues have accessible toilets or parking close by but also specific details such as whether there are tactile or Braille markings in lifts or on doors, the dimensions of toilets, the positioning of fixtures and fittings, and whether they can request information in large print or Braille.

Commenting on the launch of the guide, Dr Gregory Burke, Chief Executive of DisabledGo noted that it will make a real difference to both residents and visitors to the City who have access concerns, empowering them to find services and venues that suit their own specific requirements.  The online guide will provide benefits for business too, helping them reach more customers by publicising the access they offer.

Current figures estimate that there are 11 million disabled people in Britain who spend £80 billion each year, numbers that every business should take notice of. All businesses that take part also receive Disability Awareness Manuals, designed as a 20 minute introduction to disability and access.

All of the information provided in the online version of DisabledGo-Leicester will also be available on the ‘Looking Local’ service on the red button on local TV, so that if people don’t have access to a computer at home, they can still get the information they need.

Hotel News UK reports that hoteliers throughout the United Kingdom have made strides to boost the number of accessible rooms in recent months as London gears up for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  In doing so, they hope to capitalize on the more than £2-billion (US$3.2-billion) tourist segment for disabled people.  There are more than 1,540 hotels and bed and breakfasts listed on the Government-backed Inclusive London website, which was launched in March 2011 to promote accessible rooms to all tourists visiting the city. There are a further 122 accessible hostels.

A lot of work has gone into improving accommodation access, says Ufi Ibrahim, CE of the British Hospitality Association.  “We’ve been working with tourism organization Tourism for All to raise awareness.  Many hoteliers in London have been doing sort of small quick fixes in order to enable some rooms to be usable for people who have accessibility problems—ramps, for example.”

Other changes are more long-term.   InterContinental Hotels Group, which has 294 accessible rooms in London, invested more than £12 million (US$19.3 million) seven years ago into its portfolio to ensure compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act. The resulting efforts saw the inclusion of tactile signage and ceiling track hoists in select locations. IHG also requires all employees to undergo training programs on how to accommodate guests with disabilities, both during orientation and then once every six months for review.

By summer 2012, there will be 2,667 accessible rooms in London, 1,392 of which will be wheelchair friendly.  But with a potential market of 78 million American and 75 million European disabled visitors, friends and families according to VisitEngland, it is uncertain whether supply will meet demand, Ibrahim said. Hoteliers are ramping up development efforts in an attempt to do just that. Premier Inn plans to open four additional properties before the Games. The group also recently opened the London Stratford Premier Inn, the first among the company portfolio to offer fixed tracker hoisting mechanisms. Hilton Worldwide encourages development of accessible rooms through a flexible room layout, said Alex Humphrey, senior manager of safety and security for the U.K. and Western Europe. “Each hotel has the ability to customize rooms with accessibility equipment to increase the number of accessible rooms, in addition to providing dedicated equipment for those guests with hearing impairments,” he said.

Disabled World reports that the Special Needs Group (SNG) is launching a powerful, unprecedented online Accessible Travel Advocate course for all travel professionals. The SNG is the leading global provider of special needs equipment for the travel industry.  The one-hour, three-module program objectives focus on understanding accessible travel, building expertise in accessible travel and demonstrating accessible travel advocacy skills and runs November 14.    The accessible travel market is the  fastest-growing segment of the travel market, and this is the first time travel professionals can become conversant with it through online study and testing, available here.

Special Needs Group has also formed a new advisory board, the SNG Inner Circle, consisting of key players in the travel industry such as cruise line CEOs, etc. The board will convene several times per year to discuss key travel accessibility issues and how to improve travel experiences for individuals with special needs.

The 2011 M-Enabling Summit and Showcase for Mobile Applications and Services for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities will bring together leaders in the global emerging mobile accessibility eco-system to foster discussion and decision-making among mobile technology, aging and disability experts, and policy professionals in the United States and abroad. The Summit’s Inaugural Briefing Session, hosted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will cover the latest legislative and regulatory steps taken by the United States and other countries on mobile accessibility. The event is presented by the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict) and E.J. Krause & Associates (in cooperation with the  International Telecommunication Union and the FCC.  Participants will include representatives from AT&T, Verizon, W3C, Daisy Consortium, the AAPD, AFB, and UNCRPD, amongst others.

Key tracks will highlight new innovations addressing the specific needs of users living with different types of disability, as well as major emerging market opportunities, such as accessible and assistive applications and solutions for travel and tourism.

“More than 5.4 billion mobile phones are in service today while, according to the latest WHO-World Bank Report on Disability, 1 billion persons live with disabilities – 54 million in the United States alone – including a large proportion of seniors,” said conference co-organizer Axel Leblois, Executive Director of G3ict. “The M-Enabling Summit will be the first opportunity for all stakeholders involved to participate in a groundbreaking sharing of experience among mobile industry, private sector leaders, senior and disability organizations, IT professionals, operators, apps developers, government, and accessibility experts.”

The Summit will be held in Washington D.C. from December 5-6, 2011 at the Gaylord
National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor.

The World Travel Market is a major international travel industry event held over 4
days.  Last year, nearly 50,000 industry participants, and over 5000 exhibiting companies took part in the market.  This year, the market is being held on 7-10 November in London, and will have two seminars and an Advice Clinic on accessible tourism.  One seminar will cover the business case for developing Access tourism and will be chaired by John de Vial of the British Travel Association (ABTA).  The second seminar will be presented by members of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and will highlight market data and research findings.  The session will be introduced by Veroniek Maat, a one-time intern at the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute of Auckland University of Technology (NZTRI) and a contributor to Access Tourism New Zealand.  The advice clinic will be run by Brian Seaman of Tourism for All UK, and 15 minute one-on-one sessions are available by registering and selecting someone to speak to from a list of fourteen industry experts.

The travel industry should be targeting the over-55 market because fewer students can afford to travel on gap years, says Post Office Travel Insurance, UK. The company says that UK students starting their degrees in 2012 are expected to face an average debt of 56,000 pounds on graduation, compared with around 27,000 pounds if they began their studies this September.  With increased university fees, only 19% of students are considering a gap year or extended break this year.

In contrast, 25% of over 55s Brits plan to take a break of three months or longer, spending more than £4,000 each.  And – importantly for New Zealand – the most popular destinations for “grey gappers” are Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Recent research has shown that people in their 50s who have always wanted to escape are saying: “Let’s just do it”. They are trekking in Borneo, going on a cruise around the world, climbing the Himalayas, or exploring Alaska. There is definitely a desire to do something exciting.  ‘It is often the first thing that a lot of people do when they have retired. They go on a very long holiday’  (Ros Altmann, Saga).

The Rolling Rains Report writes that the first international certification programme for accessible tourism destinations has been developed and carried out in Lousã, Portugal by the Belgian Accessibility Office, Toegangelijkheidsbureau (TGB).

The Accessible Tourism Destination Certification Programme or ATDCP is based on an extensive audit of the Destination Management Organisation’s accessible  tourism policies, infrastructure, transport, services and visitor information, and includes accessibility assessments of the outdoor environment, overnight accommodation, attractions, and activities and offers for visitors including persons with disabilities, older persons and families with small children.

Designed and developed by accessibility and tourism experts, TGB Belgium, the ATDCP is a completely new destination management tool which provides an accurate measure of the excellence of an accessible tourism destination, based on strictly defined criteria.

The Accessible Destination Certification Programme involves assessment meetings with destination managers coupled with on-site audits and document analysis, thus building a picture of the capacity and level of achievement of the accessible destination.  Each element of the assessment is scored against a set of indicators, thus enabling managers to track the destination’s performance over time and allowing for benchmarking across any number of destinations.

The Programme also provides a tailor-made Action Plan for destination managers, with priorities for improvements to be made in the different facets of the accessible destination.  The Action Plan aims to ensure that the destination will continue to develop and improve its offers to all visitors, giving them fulfilling, accessible experiences, whatever their interests and regardless of their age or abilities.  The TGB Accessible Tourism Destination Certificate is valid for two years, after which time it must be renewed through a re-assessment process.

For background on this advance, see the European Network for Accessible Tourism website.

This year’s November Pro-ICAT conference  Tourism For All in Malaysia will discuss just that, amongst other things.  With an emphasis on what developing accessible tourism can do to promote national and regional economic development, the conference aims to:

• highlight the existence of Accessible Tourism through hosting events that will draw attention to this niche in the tourism sector
• provide information on Accessible Tourism to the public locally and internationally
• make known to the public the obstacles and challenges in Accessible Tourism and ways to overcome them
•  encourage a tourism system in Malaysia that welcomes people with disabilities having good liaison between disabled organizations and tourism organizations so that attractions can be facilitated more systematically.
• encourage the Ministry of Tourism in Malaysia to do more research in promoting Accessible Tourism.
• advocate for the removal of architectural and transportation barriers that prevent people with disabilities from sharing fully in all aspects of our society including going for tours.

In the USA in the past decade, many grandparents have seen substantial and real increases in their household income while their offspring have fallen behind (Metlife).  The percentage of inflation-adjusted household income that accrued to households ages 55 or older has risen from 28% to 34%, which meant a real income increase for those households of $659 billion. During that same decade, the total real income of households ages 25 to 44 (most of whom were the adult children of those ages 55 or older) declined from 43% to 36%, which meant a real aggregate income loss of $312 billion.  Despite wide economic variation, the economic impact of a record number of relatively affluent grandparents is both substantial and growing rapidly. Consumer spending by households ages 55 or older, the vast majority of which are grandparents, has been rising at rates well above inflation and faster by far than any other age category.  Some results?   Older customers now dominate the Tablet and eReader market, so that 51% of owners are 45 years old or older (Neilsen), and grandparents are responsible for 25% of all toy sales in the USA.  What does this mean for marketers?  A Silver Group Asia reports on almost 15,000 responses to a poll on Asian Boomer consumer thoughts, feelings and actions. Highlights include that 59% say age-friendliness is critical to their choice of product or service (they are more likely to buy age-friendly brands), and that this is true across product types (sports gear, clothing, skin care, bank/insurance, or airlines).  More (82%) are very likely or likely to place importance on age-friendly advertising, social network reviews (72%), age-friendly retail environments (63% ) age-friendly websites (42%), and age-friendly product service and design.

A study by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research estimated that one in 10 visitors to Montana arrived on a motorcycle. That’s about 1 million people (Billings Gazette).    And increasing numbers are older riders on big cruising or touring bikes. Survey data from the Motorcycle Industry Council, a private industry group, shows that the median age of bikers increased from 27.1 in 1985 to 41 in 2003. At the same time, the percentage of owners in the 40-to-49 age group increased from 13.2 to 27.9 percent, and the percentage of owners 50 or older went from 8.1 to 25.1.  That means more than half of owners are 40 or older, supplanting the once-dominant 15-to-29 age group. The transition to older motorcycle owners started to make its statistical presence known as early as 1990, and has been edging up since.

Meanwhile, the American Motorcyclist Association’s latest data shows the average age of motorcyclists is even older, at 48.

Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (Tokyo Internatinal Airport) has a new runway and new international terminal that “makes life easy for international travellers”.   So writes Harriet Baskas  in USA Today.   “And in a country well-known for its high-tech toilets, the airport restrooms are a delight. “Ordinary toilets” have wider-than-normal doorways to accommodate both manual wheelchair users and travelers with suitcases. Folding doors on the cubicles include a sign indicating whether or not there’s a baby seat and a fold-down changing table inside. And inside each women’s restroom area there’s a urinal for use by small boys.

“Multipurpose toilets” are exactly that. To accommodate wheelchair users, passengers traveling with babies or toddlers, elderly people and anyone with a special need, there are restrooms equipped with just about every facility imaginable. In addition to diaper changing tables, beds and changing platforms, these restrooms have ostomate showers and sinks, layouts that allow for right or left hand transfers to the toilet seat from a wheelchair and an emergency button linked directly to the airport’s Disaster Control Center.

And, in what is certainly an airport first, there’s even a restroom designed specifically for use by service dogs.”

Amongst the improvements making this airport highly accessible to all, including people with disabilities, is excellent information on the airport website about access.

Visit Scotland – the national tourism organisation – says that that the accessible tourism market is already hugely important and is growing.  Between January – June 2009, 12% of all domestic trips to Scotland were made by visitors with access needs, or those accompanying someone who has access needs. This amounts to:

• 659 thousand trips, contributing almost £121 million to the Scottish economy in just six months, and rose to £325 million pounds for the 11 month period 2009/10.
• Senior tourists, over 55’s hold 80% of the nation’s wealth, and the 11 million disabled people in the UK have a potential spending power (disposable income) of £80b per year.

This is significantly higher than some more established targeted markets.

VisitScotland is leading an Accessible Tourism Steering Group (ATSG) with representatives from Capability Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Tourism Forum, the Scottish Government and other leading individuals from the accessible tourism industry. ATSG have planned a series of activities looking to engage and help tourism businesses to grasp emerging opportunities in accessible tourism market. The key objective of this programme is to raise awareness, alter perceptions and enable the Scottish tourism industry to better plan for accessible tourism product development.

VisitScotland has commissioned Capability Scotland to set up and run six events from August – October 2011 to engage with disabled people and find out what needs to be enhanced or changed to make Scottish tourism more accessible.   Disabled people with a range of impairments and conditions will meet with representatives from Capability and VisitScotland to talk about their experiences as a tourist in Scotland and the barriers that they face.  Recommendations will then be made to VisitScotland and the Scottish tourism industry.

Engaging the tourism industry

• Business Workshops – ATSG will attend about  12 Industry events in autumn at which they will present the findings, the statistics around the economic value of accessible tourism and run question and answer sessions.
• VisitScotland is making a film in three parts, based on the findings from the project, with interviews. This will be used to promote Accessible Tourism throughout 2011/12, with a showing of the finished film at the 2012 conference.
• Industry conference – October 2012: workshops and presentations; opportunity for businesses to ask questions in an open and helpful environment.

The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) will give a presentation at the 2011 World Travel Market Conference in London 7-10 November.  The presentation will include a round-up of the key issues in making tourism offers accessible and  inclusive for all visitors. Highlighting will be the latest market data and research findings which show how businesses and destinations are winning market share by offering accessible infrastructure and services.  Also discussed will be how England is making ready for all visitors to enjoy the London Olympic and paralympic Games 2012.  Tourist Boards, DMOs, attractions, hotels, airlines and booking agents can all play a part in catering for the growing market of seniors, families with young children and people with disabilities, and information will be provided on how it’s done and where to begin.   ENAT is a non-profit association of organisations and individuals from the private, public and NGO sectors. Their mission is to make European tourism destinations, products and services accessible to all visitors and to help promote Accessible Tourism around the world.

Tourism Victoria (Australia) now has a page on Accessible Tourism about developing tourism destinations, products, and services so that they are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disability, or age.  This includes parents travelling with prams and large groups including people with disabilities.  The aim of the state government organization is to develop local and global market potential by working with the tourism industry to deliver growth.    The site presents the business case for making Victoria’s tourism industry more accessible, and points out that in Australia:

•  The population is ageing and there is a growing market for travellers with accessibility needs.
• Almost one in five people has a disability of which nearly 90% take a holiday each year.
• People with a disability account for some 8.2 million overnight trips and spend $8 billion or 11% of Australia’s overall tourism expenditure

Tourism Victoria’s Accessible Tourism Plan 2010-2013 aims to encourage the Victorian tourism industry to see the social and economic benefits of offering tourism products and services for people with access requirements and outlines strategies and actions to do this.  Many Victorian tourist attractions are now developing disability action plans.

The National Geographic Travel Magazine next issue will feature an article on Access Travel.  The magazine interviewed American accessible tourism guru and author of the Rolling Rains Report Scott Rains for the piece. Rains has noticed something interesting lately. Other folks his age—the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 and referred to as the baby boom generation—have begun to understand the need for accessible tourism.  Boomers are joining forces with disability and senior groups to add muscle to the cause of increased accessibility in travel. “They don’t intend to let hip replacements and insulin shots stop them from traveling,” says Rains. “Nor will they be pandered to, stigmatized, or written off.”  Rains and his generation are part of a growing movement. Retiring 60-somethings have more time to travel, which has increased demand for accessible accommodations. The nonprofit Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality (SATH), made up mostly of travel agencies catering to those with mobility issues, saw members’ hotel bookings more than double last year, a remarkable feat in a recession.

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Manchester Airport has launched a pioneering new access guide designed to provide disabled customers with all the information required to plan their journey through one of the UK’s busiest airports with confidence.  The guide has been developed in partnership with respected disability organisation DisabledGo.  The airport points out that this is the first time an airport has been given its own guide. The new guide talks visitors to the airport through their journey; from the car park to their departure lounge if they are flying from Manchester, or alternatively from arrivals through to the car park if Manchester is their final destination. Every piece of information on the airport guide has been collected in person by a trained DisabledGo access surveyor. The information includes everything from details of the fixtures and fittings in accessible toilets, to hearing assistance systems, lighting levels and the dimensions of parking bays.

Speaking about the development of the guide Dr Gregory Burke, Chief Executive of DisabledGo said: “We are delighted to have worked in partnership on this pioneering project. It has been clear throughout the whole process that Manchester Airport is committed to providing the best possible service to disabled travellers and recognises that disabled people are a much ignored market. As a wheelchair user and a frequent flyer I know how incredibly stressful air travel can often be. This guide will be a step-change in making every journey better for disabled people and anyone else. All credit to Manchester Airport.”

Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport’s Managing Director, said: “I am delighted that we are the first airport to have helped create a DisabledGo guide. We want to make every customer’s journey stress free so this World-first guide is just another way of us helping take away the worry for passengers with reduced mobility. By launching this guide in the Summer season, I am confident that passengers will find it useful in navigating their way around the airport.”  The information is easily searchable by using a range of icons and is complemented by interactive 3D maps of the Airport site. In addition to the guide DisabledGo will supply Manchester Airport staff with disability equality training and advice on how access can be improved in the future.

The over fifties are more mobile and more active than ever before. Between 2005 and 2010 vacation travel by Europeans aged 55 and over expanded by 17 per cent. This age group as a whole accounted for 27% of all trips abroad, or 78 million holiday trips. As far as holiday preferences are concerned, the over fifties are increasingly distancing themselves from the clichés associated with traditional travel by senior citizens.  While beach holidays outstrip any other type of vacation in Europe, and are even gaining in popularity, individual countries have their own preferences. At the same time, city tours, cruises and excursions have experienced a significant boost among the over fifty-fives.

According to an analysis commissioned by Messe Berlin and carried out by the World Travel Monitor^®, the most important source markets for the over fifties are the United Kingdom with 16.1 million and Germany with 15.3 million vacation trips. While foreign travel by members of the so-called silver age group from Britain has risen by 28% since 2005, the German market has stagnated. In third and fourth place respectively are France with 7.2 million and the Netherlands with 6.9 million trips. These four countries alone account for almost 60% of all travellers in the over-55 age group.

Dr. Martin Buck, director of the Competence Centre Travel and Logistics at Messe Berlin: “Socio-demographic change in Europe presents a major challenge as well as offering enormous opportunities. As the number of older vacationers rises, so this target group acquires growing importance for the travel industry as a whole. That is why it is so important for the world’s travel industry to be informed about the requirements, demands and wishes of the over fifties with regard to their travel plans.”

With a 28% share of the market, holidays at beach resorts are by far the most popular choice among Europe’s over fifties, and are the most vigorously expanding sector too, the number of such trips having increased by four million since 2005 (a 22% rise). The city tour sector has also expanded significantly (a 16% share of the market). In this area the volume of over fifty-fives grew by 3 million (a 32% rise), followed by cruises, with an increase of 2.4 million trips by people in this age group, and excursions, with a rise of 2.1 million. There was also slight growth across Europe in sports and health-oriented holidays.

Other countries reveal different holiday preferences. According to the World Travel Monitor^® there has been a strong decline in the interest shown by Germany’s so-called silver age group in holidays on the beach (3.8 million trips less, minus 18%). All the same, they remain the most popular type of vacation. The winners are smaller market segments such as health-based vacations (0.7 million trips, plus 61%), cruises (0.9 million trips, plus 64%), sports holidays (1 million trips, plus 53%) and city tours (2 million trips, plus 30%).  In the United Kingdom the beach is still the most popular form of vacation, by a short head. Among the French, however, excursions are roughly of the same importance as vacations at beach resorts. Although in the Netherlands the over fifties who travel abroad still tend to prefer holidays in the countryside, the biggest expansion has been recorded in city tours and holidays on the beach.

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The Philippines Department of Tourism pledged to eliminate barriers to travel for people with disabilities (PWDs) at a forum with tourism stakeholders and representatives from the PWD sector this week.  The government is hoping to increase visits by PwDs by suggesting that operators offer   tourists with disabilities discounts on fares, hotels, and leisure establishments to this potentially huge and under-served market segment.  The government has called on tourism businesses to apply a 20% discount – already guaranteed by law to disabled Filipinos – to all visitors with disabilities, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said.  “The trend is not to have separate services for PWDs, but for full integration in our hospitality industry.  This entails making our products suitable for persons with particular needs so that they may enjoy travel equally with everyone else.”  Because the disabled  make up about 20% of the world’s population, this is a big market.

President Benigno Aquino has singled out tourism as a key  driver of economic growth.  But the Philippines lags many of its Asian neighbours even though arrivals surged 16.68  percent to an all-time high 3.52 million visitors last year.  Lim said the government was committed to reducing their transportation constraints by making toilets, bathrooms and doors easier to use for wheelchair-userd, and putting up ramps, handrails, and installing non-skid floors.  Tourism Undersecretary Maria Victoria Jasmin  said the government was offering incentives to tourism establishments that  renovate their facilities to make them more friendly to the disabled.

The Economist magazine, in association with the National Confederation of Disabled People in Greece (ESAEA), is organizing the 3rd Conference on
Corporate Social Responsibility, “People with disability and the right to
inclusion: what is the role of anthropocentric companies?” The conference, planned for 27 September 2011, will address a number of themes,
including tourism for people with disabilities.  Discussions will include:

• Why has tourism been used as the Trojan Horse?
• The impact of “Tourism for All” on the country’s economic development
• How accessible is tourism in Greece both to Greeks
  and foreign visitors with disabilities?

Planned speakers include Ivor Ambrose, Managing Director, European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), representatives from ESAEA, European Disability Forum, George Nikitiadis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Greece, George Tsakiris, President, Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, and Werner Pietsch, Managing Director, Stadthaushotel, Hamburg.  A case study of Stadthaushotel will be included.

The European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) reports that the European Union Access City Awards applications for 2011 are open.  The Access City Award sets out to showcase and reward cities with over 50,000 inhabitants which take exemplary initiatives to improve accessibility in the urban environment.  In the context of a steadily ageing population living in European cities and its correlation with disabilities, accessibility has important social and economic benefits.  Cities which are proactive supporters of accessibility for persons with disabilities should apply by 20 September 2011. The winner will be announced at the Award Ceremony in Brussels on 1-2 December 2011. The award is given to the city that has demonstrably improved accessibility

• in fundamental aspects of city  living
• the built environment and public  spaces
• transport and related infrastructure
• information and communication,  including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• public facilities and services; and
• is committed to continued  improvements in accessibility in a sustainable way
• can act as a role model and encourage  the adoption of best practices in all other European cities.

Contact
European Secretariat of the Access City Award
Email: secretariat (at) accesscityaward.eu
Tel / fax +48 22 826 84 05