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

Inside Tourism (Issue 799/2) reports that Tourism Industry Association (TIANZ) CEO Tim Cossar outlined at this week’s annual ITOC conference the three things NZ recommends most to our visitors.  One of these recommendations is “thrill seeking activities”.  As pointed out on this website several times before (most recently here), the government’s own data shows that more visitors engage in sedentary activity while in New Zealand and that the largest group of both domestic and international travellers in New Zealand are already 45 years old or older. Not only that, populations in our most important markets (including in NZ) are ageing and will continue to do so for the next several decades.   And it is the older age groups that have the money and the time to spend on tourism, travel, and hospitality.  While “thrill seeking” is a wonderful lure to the smaller and less wealthy younger demographic, it is unlikely that an emphasis on such activities will attract visitors in the older, richer, and more time-wealthy demographic to our shores.  Access Tourism NZ applauds the fact that NZ also emphasizes NZ’s natural beauty and cultural experiences.  In order to build a sustainable tourism industry in NZ, it is this older demographic that we need to be attracting, and nature and culture are amongst the things that are attractive to them.

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 Veroniek Maat, Intern, NZ Tourism Research Institute, Auckland University of Technology, and Masters Student, Leisure, Tourism, and Environment, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

The New Zealand Tourism Guide (NZTG) is “one of the top commercial tourism directory websites in New Zealand” providing comprehensive information for tour operators and tourists. This week, an updated NZTG was launched in anticipation of Rugby World Cup , a major event occurring in NZ in 2011.  A paragraph about accessible accommodation for People with Disabilities (PwDs)  – slightly altered from previous versions – can be found after extensive key word search.

The NZTG makes a distinction between ‘accessible’ accommodations and ‘disabled’ accommodations, although it is not clear why this is done.   Visitors to the site are told that they can expect some, if not all, of a list of accessible facilities at accommodations, but “before booking your accommodation, you should always confirm with your hosts that adequate provision is available”.   This is unfortunate because research done into access for PwDs at accommodations in NZ shows that many operators think their premises are accessible when they are not.   Therefore, potential guests willing to reserve at accommodations which claim they are accessible cannot assume accessible facilities are present just because they are claimed to be.  

A link to “View all listings for accessible accommodations” leads potential guests to a list which is organized in alphabetic order and contains around two hundred accommodations. Unfortunately, none of the accommodations emphasize accessibility, and an in-depth search of the websites of the first ten “accessible” accommodations listed shows that they have little or absolutely no information about access for PwDs.  Regrettably, it is can be concluded that the list of “accessible” accommodations given on the NZTG website could be misleading to potential visitors with disabilities.  By providing such information, NZTG made a step in the right direction, but it needs to examine content and not rely just on operator self-assessment of access.  After all, by listing such providers (who may or may not be accessible to PwDs), NZTG seems to be endorsing that such accommodations are in fact accessible.

Kevin Blackford, editor/Publisher of the New Zealand TravelMemo has written an insightful piece on mining and tourism in the Coromandel Peninsula, NZ (April 27, 2010).  While this debate is outside the general content of this website, it is reproduced here in its entirely with the authors permission because it is an important issue for New Zealand tourism.  The piece focuses on the Coromandel because it’s familiar territory to the writer, who grew up in the area. The same questions over mining vs tourism may well apply to the other areas due for removal from Schedule 4. There are pre-worded and editable submission forms on the websites of Coromandel Watchdog, NZ Greenpeace and Forest and Bird. Overseas readers are also permitted to make submissions. The Ministry of Economic Development (www.med.govt.nz) submissions deadline is 5pm Tuesday 04 MAY.

With one week to go until the closing deadline for submissions, thousands of people have already made them online to the Ministry of Economic Development commenting on its plan to open up previously protected areas of the conservation estate to allow mining. While Gerry Brownlee talks of a $54 billion mineral bonanza under the Coromandel Peninsula, his ministry has yet to actually undertake a technical investigation there. The annual royalties (just $6.5m from gold last year), plus the tax take and associated job creation would amount to only a fraction of that unproven total, yet this natural playground and its tourism revenues (Coromandel’s tourism industry has an estimated annual worth of $360 million and is growing at 5% pa. For the year ended FEB10 Coromandel’s domestic guest nights were up 7.4% and its international guest nights were up 11%. FEB was the first time ever that international guest nights exceeded domestic for the month) are to be risked in the search for a goldmine.

Read on…………….

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In a first, a new New Zealand Ministry of Tourism report, in recognizing that that Baby Boomers are New Zealand’s largest domestic market segment, has also recognized the role that disability may play in travel by this group.  The report – Domestic Tourism Market Segmentation  Stage 2 – breaks the domestic tourism market into eight segments, giving segments names such as “Rewarding”, “Creating”, “Searching”, and “Immersing”.  One segment – made up of 98% Leading Edge Baby Boomers and Seniors (Fig. 41) – is labeled “Being There”.  According to the report, this is NZ’s largest market segment.  It comprises 22% of the NZ population, its members are comparatively asset rich, and money is less of a barrier to travel than it is to members of other segments.  To our knowledge, the first mention of the fact that “travellers in the older age groups will become even more significant in the future” occurred in the Ministry’s International Visitors Tourism Sector Profile, in June 2009, so it is good to see that this research supports the importance of the older market.  The report goes on to state that the “major barriers to travel (for this segment) are health or disability (their own or that of a travelling companion) as well as a lack of travelling companions” (page 30).  In this way, the report reinforces the idea that it is a person’s disability that is a barrier, rather than  environments such as inaccessible transport and accommodation that are disabling, and which therefore reduce tourism and travel opportunities for people with disabilities.

Graphs on page 79 show that between about 6-8% (estimate) of “Being There” members report disability as a travel barrier to overseas holidays, short domestic breaks, and domestic holidays, compared to about 3-4% of all segments combined. Nevertheless, holidays are very important to members of this segment (page 30).  Matching the New Zealand average, one third of this segment has holidayed overseas in the last 12 months, but they take more frequent overseas holidays than the average New Zealander. ‘Being There’ takes more longer domestic holidays than average (with popular holiday destinations being Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch). They take fewer short breaks and more day trips than members of other segments.  When taking short breaks in New Zealand, ‘Being There’ enjoys sightseeing and shopping; during longer breaks, in addition to these activities, they enjoy natural attractions, walking/hiking and cultural/heritage attractions. The segment’s ideal holiday destination is familiar, safe and affordable, providing scenery, landscape, history and heritage experiences.

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.”

Worldwide, cruise passengers are expected to reach 14.3 million passengers this year, one million more than in 2009. In NZ, the cruise industry is growing faster than any other part of the tourism industry, and is worth $3 million/day in foreign exchange earnings.   The important role played by older tourists in this growing sector was last week recognized by the NZ Tourism Industry Association when CEO Tim Cossar stated that “the cruise market is being driven by high spending Baby Boomers”.   But Access Tourism New Zealand (ATNZ) has pointed out many times in the past (most recently, 6/11/2009,  9/12/2009, 13/1/2010, 3/2/2010), that our ports are ill prepared for an influx of older visitors, especially when it comes to improving access for ageing Baby Boomers, cruise passengers who are already disabled, and the increase in cruisers who will have a disability in future.  Why?  Because disability increases with age. 

 The rise in the number of cruise ships visiting New Zealand has been meteoric in the last several years.  The New Zealand Ezine Inside Tourism (IT) reported earlier this month that Ports of Auckland processed nearly 6,000 passengers in a four day period, and that the city will host 60 cruise ships over the season (IT 771).  Four Corners NZ travel news reports that 24 cruise ships are scheduled to dock in Lytellton this month, and some of these will also be visiting Kaikoura and Akaroa.  And Canterbury is hosting three times as many cruise passengers than they did just three years ago, according to Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Christine Prince.

Cruise passengers travelling to New Zealand tend to be in older age groups.  72% are aged between 55 – 74 years, while only 5% were under the age of 40 (2006/2007 Cruise Research, Tourism New Zealand).  But even the age of non-cruise tourists to NZ has risen over the last decade (Tourism Leading Indicator Monitor August 2008), a trend likely to continue as the huge Baby Boomer generation retires and starts travelling more.

Along with an increase in the age of our visitors will come an increase in visitors with disabilities. In the cruise industry - whether as a result of recent successful consumer lawsuits overseas, or a dawning realization that travellers with disabilities have money to spend – cruise lines are slowly removing barriers to people with disabilities (CPA).  Last year, Access Now, a Miami Beach-based organization that promotes rights for disabled travellers, settled a lawsuit with Carnival Cruise Lines over lack of accessibility on the company’s cruise ships. Access Now currently has pending lawsuits against several other cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Westtours and Costa Crociere. Several of these companies, however, are already in the process of improving accessibility for travellers with disabilities. Holland America, for example, has dedicated managers who oversee accessibility issues and requirements of guests with access needs. It would appear that these companies are recognizing the fact that wheelchair users and those with other disabilities already represent a legitimate segment of the cruise market.

Given the rise in cruisers, the ageing of cruise tourists, the consequent predicted rise in disability as cruisers age, and the increasing provision of access on ships resulting in more cruisers that also have disabilities, Access Tourism New Zealand advocates for an improvement in access at cruise ship terminals beyond mere compliance.  There are a number of planned revamps of cruise terminals in New Zealand, including in Auckland and Lytellton.  An inclusion of design principles that take into account the needs of people with disabilities and seniors can only but help the New Zealand cruise industry. 

Why focus on travellers with disabilities?  Because it is ageing Baby Boomers – who will experience increasing disability as they age – who have the disposable income to spend on-shore, and who will swell the current ranks of people with disabilities who already want to travel, but have few choices because of lack of provision. Because travellers with disabilities “see the benefit of taking a cruise because many ships now have accessible features for people with physical, sight, and hearing disabilities” (Tierney, June 2009), we can expect to see more such travellers coming ashore at New Zealand ports.

Technology is having daily a greater impact on all walks of life, including in tourism and travel, and the need to understand how visitors to New Zealand use technology in their tourism decision making is seen as a priority in our tourism strategy (NZ Tourism Strategy 2015).  Another need not mentioned in the strategy is that of the provision of older-age related products and services.

 When Prof. Ron Nabarro received the World Technology Network Award last July, the judges who awarded him the prize wrote that his innovative work in design would have far-reaching implications for our future lives.   Nabarro, 64, was the only winner in the design category, and he received the prize for his work on what is called age-friendly design – such as cellular phones for older users.

 The award presenters noted that, “Nabarro has brought older-age related needs and factors as primary considerations into his research and work in the design of products, services, contents and mature lifestyle management. He helped companies and service providers to better understand and provide for the needs and requirements of older consumers His design work stands out in the design profession where it seems that aging and old age remain neglected to the extent of discrimination.”

“In the world of design it is quite difficult to find real humanistic values as real considerations.  Prof. Nabarro preaches his design philosophy by teaching and working with young designers all over the world on ‘age friendly design’ (in many cases voluntarily) in order to teach them to ‘think old’ and understand this important market segment”.

 What’s the market potential for age-friendly design?

“If you talk about age 55 and up, the estimate for the U.S. is around 79 million people, and for Europe it is 56 million – and that’s if you ignore the growth in China, said Nabarro. All of these people have an unnatural encounter with technology. The potential is mammoth for product marketing. Every five seconds in the U.S. and Europe, a baby boomer passes the age of 60. In the Western world these are usually well-off people, who are willing to pay good money for products that won’t make them feel they are old already.”   

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The New Zealand backers industry is changing.   A decline in the number of British backpackers has been offset by an increasing number of New Zealanders, independent Chinese, and Baby Boomer travellers choosing to backpack around the country, chairman of the backpacker advocacy group nzbackpack.com, Daniel Shields, of Christchurch, said (Otago Daily Times).  The Baby Boomers tended to come from Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, and had often travelled in New Zealand in their youth.   ”They have knowledge of youth hosteling, and stay in cheaper places so they can spend money on adventure travelling.”

 Auckland University of Technology Tourism Research Institute director Prof Simon Milne, said backpackers were a subset of “free and independent travellers”, which also included cyclists, and those touring in campervans.   Traditionally, backpackers were viewed as young, hard-drinking travellers who did things on the cheap, but this was no longer the case.   Backpackers today were technologically savvy, environmentally conscious, and often travelled cheap so they could spend money on adventure tourism in places like Queenstown.  Concerns for the industry include access and disability issues for the growing Baby Boomer market.

 Sandra Rhodda, of Access Tourism New Zealand has advocated that it would make sense for Tourism New Zealand to focus on the Baby Boomer market.  In a June 2009 article (Inside Tourism), she asked why New Zealand still intends to focus on the youth market  as part of our strategy to bolster visitor arrivals, and why Tourism New Zealand is to looking to the young adventure-seeking backpackers market as an industry lifeline (NZ Herald June 10, 2009).  This in spite of the fact that even in the backpacker market, grey is growing.  A YHA NZ user survey shows that those 50 or older comprised 14% in 2007 but 27% in 2008.

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