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

The European Disability Forum is an independent European non-government organisation which has played a key role in ensuring that all relevant EU policies and initiatives  take disabled people into account.  It reports that the European Commission has just adopted a communication on tourism which proposes to better include people with disabilities.   The latest communication from the Commission points out that tourism plays an important role in Europe’s economy. It comprises 1.8 million enterprises, many of these being small and medium-sized businesses. It also points out that transport and tourism is a basic right for all citizens, including people with disabilities. The right to travel and to access tourist activities is enshrined in Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD).    The UN CRPD has been signed and ratified by New Zealand, so that these rights exist in this country.  However, we have not done a very good job in implementing this (see for example, this post, and this).   

CRPD has been signed and is in the process of ratification by the European communities and its Member States.  Read more……………

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The New Zealand population is ageing, along with that of the rest of the world.  This fact is significant for the tourism, travel, and hospitality industry because disability increases with age.  And it is older people who already comprise our biggest domestic and international visitor groups.  Statistics New Zealand reports that at 30 June 2010, half the male population of New Zealand was over 35.5 years of age, and half of females were over 37.6 years of age. Over the last 10 years, the median age has increased by 2.0 years for males and 2.5 years for females.  The population aged 40-64 (all Baby Boomers and some leading edge GenX) increased in number by 1.5%, while those 65 or older increased by 3% between June 2009 and June 2010. Over the decade ended 30 June 2010, the population aged 15–39 years reduced from 36% to 34% of the population, while over the same period, those aged 40-64 increased by 1.5% to 32%, and those aged 65-79 grew at an average annual rate of 1.9%. In the 10 years ended June 2010, there was also an increase in the proportion of the population aged 80 years and over (80+), from 2.8% to 3.5%.

New Zealand needs to begin to seriously consider improving access in all walks of life – including in tourism, travel, and hospitality – if we are to manage the opportunities presented by the ageing of the population and the resulting changes in ability in our population and the populations of countries that are our major tourism markets.  We can only build a truely sustainable tourism sector by including access considerations.  Unlike our main rivals, we are as yet taking very few steps in this direction.

About 50 people attended a seminar on Access Tourism given in mid-May by Sandra Rhodda of the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI)and Director of Access Tourism New Zealand.  The seminar was held at Auckland University of Technology.  (AUT).    Audience members included tourism operators, business people, academics, and individuals from local councils, Qualmark, a government member, and people from a variety of NGOs.   Rhodda gave a summary of why New Zealand needs to develop an Access Tourism sector, mainly from the perspective of the economic imperative to do so.  She also gave examples of developments in Access Tourism in the rest of the world, pointed out how New Zealand is lagging in this area, and discussed the kinds of research that New Zealand needs to do to get such an industry sector going.  To see the presentation, go here. 

The seminar was a prelude to the up and coming one day conference on Access Tourism - also to be run by NZTRI/AUT at the central Auckland campus – on October 4th.  The conference will look at various aspects of Access Tourism, including some of the following: the current situation NZ and worldwide, website access and information best practice, government strategy, policy, and obligations, best practice in transport , accommodation, and attractions access, legal aspects, and quality rating for Access Tourism products in New Zealand.  It will also include brainstorming sessions on strategies for advancing the development of Access Tourism in New Zealand and developing collaboration as a tool to advance that development. These topics are based on those most popularly picked from a list of possible topics in an online survey. Registration and programme details will be available shortly on this website and on the NZTRI website.

October 4 2010 has been set as the date for the first ever conference in New Zealand on Access Tourism.  The conference will look at various aspects of Access Tourism, including some of the following: the current situation in NZ and worldwide, website access and information best practice, government strategy, policy, and obligations, best practice in transport , accommodation, and attractions access,  training for access in the tourism and hospitality sector, legal aspects, and quality rating for Access Tourism products in New Zealand.   It will also include brainstorming sessions on strategies for advancing the development of Access Tourism in New Zealand and developing collaboration as a tool to advance that development.  These topics are based on those most popularly picked from a list of possible topics in an online survey.   The conference is being run by the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology, and will be a no frills sustainable event.  For more information, contact sandrarhodda at hotmail.com.

Guest article by Bill Forrester, Travability

The Wellington Cable Car is well equipped for people with disabilities visiting the top station and they even have an electric scooter available. The cable car’s own web site, however, has no information of accessibility at all. This is a common practice and I think is at the heart of the inclusive tourism debate. The facilities are built because compliance is still the key issue. While the government of New Zealand is clearly taking accessibility seriously in requiring built infrastructure to comply, the  operators are still not seeing any value in the market and are not promoting the fact that the facilities exists. An added issue could well be that they are afraid of the market.

(A description of access to the Wellington Cable Car by Bill Forrester can be found on Travability, along with other information about Access Travel for people with disabilities -  Admin ATNZ).

 At the beginning of this week, tourism operators in New Zealand received an email from the New Zealand Tourism Guide (NZTG) about updates to the site.  The updates are centred around Rugby World Cup, a major sporting event to be held here in 2011.  NZTG is part of the Yellow Pages Group.  Information for people with disabilities is scattered on the site.  For example, there is a page headed People with Special Needs (an unfortunate use of language) which claims that “most facilities have wheelchair access, but it is wise to check when booking” (see yesterday’s guest post for a discussion of this statement).  Another page – titled Accessible Accommodation – states that

 “For travellers with visual impairment, it is important to check whether accommodations welcome your guide dog………..”

This is unfortunate.  Under NZ legislation, guide dogs, guide dogs in training, guide dog puppies and breeding stock are legally protected from discrimination by three Acts: The Human Rights Act 1993, Dog Control Act 1996, and Transport Services Licensing Act 1989.  This legislation entitles guide dogs to go into any public place and on any public vehicle including: motels, hotels, restaurants, shops, beaches, cinemas, hotels, buses ferries, domestic and international flights, ships, taxis, trains, and so on.

Because denying access to a person with a guide dog is considered a serious offence under NZ law, it is incorrect to tell our potential visitors that they should check if accommodations welcome guide dogs.   NZ has already had stories that have gone viral about visitors forced out by accommodation providers because they had guide dogs.  Hopefully, no further such stories will arise from similar experiences by our visitors.  It would be well if NZTG changed this statement to better reflect the legal obligations of accommodation providers.

Qualmark New Zealand Limited is NZ tourism’s official quality agency. It is a government and private sector partnership between Tourism New Zealand and New Zealand Automobile Association. Qualmark licenses professional and trustworthy New Zealand tourism businesses to use the Qualmark ‘tourism’s official quality mark’ to help international and domestic travellers select places to stay, things to do and ways to get around.  The role of Qualmark is to help achieve the industry’s overall goal to enhance New Zealand’s reputation as a world class visitor destination. Assessments of Qualmarked businesses are conducted annually by professional assessors for facilities, health and safety, front and back of house practices, guest care, environmental, and social actions, amongst other things.

Qualmark should include an optional Access category that should be properly vetted by registered assessors from an organisation like the Barrier Free New Zealand Trust or Qualmark assessors should be trained by such an organisation.   A search of the Qualmarked accommodations listed on the www.tourism.net.nz site (NZ Tourism Guide) as wheelchair accessible in Auckland, for example, results in 13 wheelchair-accessible operators.  The first five have Qualmark ratings.  The first of these says it is wheelchair accessible, and has some further information on its website, the second that there are “wheelchair accessible facilities” (but no further details are available), the third that one of their cottages is “wheelchair friendly” with a ramp and accessible toilet and shower (no further details), the fourth that there is a family-size wheelchair friendly unit (no further details), and the last is for the same facility as the previous listing.  Little of the information given is enough to ensure that a person with an ambulatory disability requiring the use of a wheelchair can make an informed choice that their needs will be met if they should purchase accommodation at providers similar to these.  Independent assessment is needed because it is known that operators often think they are accessible to people with disabilities when they are not.  An examination of just wheelchair access into tourism operations on the West Coast, for example, revealed that while 86% stated their businesses were wheelchair accessible, only 38% actually were.  This assessment was only of access into the business.  No internal assessment was done for the most part, so that one can expect a full assessment would reveal that even fewer businesses that think they are accessible actually are.  Qualmark rated business such as those on the NZ Tourism Guide which state they are accessible may indeed be so, but unless access is assessed and rated (as it is in countries overseas), a visitor currently has no absolute surety that it is so.

Elsewhere, operators who are Qualmarked show the wheelchair access sign but there is no other information given.  A visitor may think that such operations are accessible because they are Qualmarked, especially in light of the fact that the Tourism NZ website states that:

“For your perfect New Zealand holiday, make sure you look for accommodation and experiences which carry our Qualmark. It means that we have checked everything they do, including how they look after the environment, and it will be an experience that won’t disappoint.”

A banner on the website also states that Qualmark means “100% pure assurance.”  Therefore, visitors with disabilities have no reason to suspect that a tourism business stating it is accessible may not be so.  With the worldwide increase in the number of people with disabilities travelling, and with the ageing of the huge Baby Boomer generation, more of our visitors are going to have disabilities, and are going to depend on quality rating systems such as Qualmark to give “100% pure assurance.”

Image courtesy National Sports Centre for the Disabled, Denver CO

Territorial Authorities and Regional Councils in New Zealand differ in their views on how access to outdoor spaces in New Zealand is governed.  This small research project looks at how some of these bodies responded to the question, ““Could you please tell me where I could find legal guidelines governing accessibility, especially for people with disabilities, to parks, walking trails, bike trails, and other outdoor spaces administered by your council? “.  The question was also put to the Department of Conservation.  Acts and other instruments governing such access are also discussed.

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In 2008, 680,000 international tourists to New Zealand “hurled themselves of a bridge, paddled white water, mountain biked a gorge, or indulged in some form of adventure tourism type activity” (Tourism Business, Oct-Nov, 2009, p. 36).   This represents about a third of the 2,459 million visitors to New Zealand in that year.  Interestingly, Ministry of Tourism data shows that in the list of  main reasons given for visiting New Zealand,  to “challenge/test self’ is tenth down the list of holiday motivators.   More important motivators tend to be more sedentary reasons such as “seeing attractions”, “learn other culture”, and “take time out”.

Given that almost two thirds of international visitors do not indulge in adventure tourism, that adventure tourism is not a major motivator (if that is what is meant by “challenge/test self”), and that an analysis of Ministry data shows that our tourists are getting older (Rhodda, 2006), it is difficult to understand the current concentration on attracting adventure tourists and youth.  Perhaps New Zealand should as well be looking to excel in catering for the more sedentary, older market.

IHC (Living with Intellectual Disability in New Zealand) has released the last issue of “Hot Issues” for 2009.

In it, they note that the year started with bright promise. In 2008:

• New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• The Social Services Select Committee reported on its inquiry into the quality of care and service provision for disabled people
• The long-term disability support services review was released
• The first review of the 2001 New Zealand Disability Strategy was reported

IHC questions, however, whether there has been any actual improvement in the lives of people with intellectual and other disabilities this year.

This last Hot Issues for 2009 summarises the year’s issues, achievements, and disappointments.

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“Work in Progress” is the annual report from the Ministry for Disability Issues to the House of Representatives on the implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy.  In it, the New Zealand Minister For Disabilities Issues Tariana Turia has acknowledged that many in the (NZ) disabilities sector “have expressed impatience at the pace of the (NZ) Disability Strategy’s implementation”.    She goes on to say that “The Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues believes we can make better progress through focusing our actions on the three major influences on what disabled people can do: their personal circumstances, and those of their whānau (family) and friends who support them; the accessibility of the world we live in; and the degree to which specialised disability supports work for them.”

In the same report, Gary Williams, CE of the New Zealand Disabled Persons Assembly states that “We are keen that our position is not made worse by an under-enthusiastic approach to the New Zealand Disability Strategy’s implementation.” Williams goes on to report that The World Bank estimates it costs the global economy between $US1.3 and $US1.9 trillion a year to exclude disabled people. For New Zealand, the Disabled Persons Assembly estimates this cost to be about $10 billion a year. This is a huge lost opportunity for New Zealand, and it is a good illustration of what can be gained – both by disabled people and the country as a whole – by implementing the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

Williams sees a further opportunity to see progress in an international context when New Zealand presents its first report to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities next year (2010). The report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is likely to be substantially informed by progress reports such as the “Work in Progress”. “We are”, says Williams, “like the Ministerial Committee on Disability Issues, keen to see further actions. We are also keen to see more participatory or partnership initiatives. We want the New Zealand Disability Strategy’s implementation to be the best it can be.  However, for the last eight years it has been evident the implementation of the New Zealand Disability Strategy has lacked direction. It seems that, while the very essence of the Strategy was to have a whole-of-government approach, most agencies act in a mutually exclusive way with no discernable end goal.”

Williams called on government agencies to have budgets and timelines for the successful implementation of the Disability Strategy.

Tariana Turia

Minister for Disability Issues, Tariana Turia, pulled no punches at a frank and open discussion with members of the Auckland Disability Providers’ Network in October (source: Sheldon Brown).  Tariana Turia, also Associate Minister of Health, was answering prepared questions from ADPN members at an open forum at the Fickling Centre on October 15. The Minister had ‘official’ responses to the questions, which were handed out before the forum.  However, she was not shy about expressing her views, both personally and as a Minister.

 On the Disability Strategy, the Minister said it was not being implemented and there was no funding pathway despite the Strategy first being released in 2002. “There is no-one with any teeth pushing the Disability Strategy forward. We need some sound planning otherwise we are going to stay stuck.”

If a Disability Commissioner was appointed, the Minister said that position needed to have some teeth so the “sector has someone driving forward.”

In relation to the Office of Disability Issues, Tariana said the budget wasn’t big enough and there was no true watchdog for disability issues as the Office was not going to “bite the hand that feeds them,” i.e., the Ministry for Social Development).

Scott Rains (Rolling Rains Report) notes that the UK has a website to orient businesses on their obligations regarding tourism and travellers with disabilities.

This ought to be common practice for all nations, including New Zealand, now that the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been signed and ratified.  Tourism is noted as a right for PwDs in the convention.  There is particular onus on NZ for a development such as this because NZ was instrumental in progressing the CRPD, and in fact won the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award for making noteworthy progress towards the full participation of citizens with disabilities. 

Sandra Rhodda, for the European Network for Accessible Tourism©.  August 2009

September 2009

Abstract

To date, there has been little development of an Access Tourism sector in New Zealand.  There are few tourism operators offering genuine accessible tourism products, no reliable sources of coordinated information about such products, and little interest on the part of government, industry, or training organizations in the topic.  However, a group has been set up to inform government and industry about the economic benefits of providing accessible tourism products, and the group has just completed a strategy and action plan which it hopes will be examined by appropriate bodies. Continue Reading