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

Spain’s State Society for Innovation Management and Tourism Technologies (SEGITTUR) of the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Tourism, and Fundacion ONCE (Spain’s largest disabilities NGO) have signed an agreement under which the two will collaborate on the implementation of initiatives aimed at the internationalization of accessible tourism. Their goal is to bring tourism to the 200 million people in Europe who currently miss out, i.e., people with disabilities and those who would travel with them. SEGITTUR President Antonio Lopez de Avila, and the CEO of ONCE Foundation, José Luis Martínez Donoso stressed that  investing in accessible tourism creates a point of difference that will bring competitive advantage.

“Accessibility is good for everyone said the president of SEGITTUR after signing the agreement. “You have to turn it into a competitive advantage.”  For his part, Martinez Donoso referred to the need to build accessible tourism. He said that accessible tourism will to not only appeal to the 4 million people with disabilities in Spain but also to the 40 million in Europe.  In his opinion, “Spain could attract 20 million tourists by ensuring accessibility.”

ONCE and SEGITTUR are to cooperate in designing plans for Accessible Tourism development, advising governments in drafting legislation and standards specific to accessibility, and will provide technical assistance in the development of infrastructure projects and tourism facilities.   They will also work on designing training plans for operators involved in accessible tourism, guides conducting accessible tours, accessibility validation of tourism products, and the design and development of accessible web pages.   In addition, another development included in the agreement relates to the implementation of technologies for accessible tourism, development of accessible applications for smartphones, and the conducting of audits of accessibility.

For SEGITTUR’s president, this agreement will help tourist destinations achieve an optimal level of accessibility and thus visitation, and is an essential element in the development of Intelligent Tourist Destinations. Lopez de Avila stressed that accessible tourism brings advantages and benefits as it is a factor of social inclusion; it is important legally since tourism is a right; and it is important economically since this is a market segment of 200 million people in Europe alone.

Source: In Spanish here. (Please forgive any translation mistakes, above!)

Australian trend forecaster  Bernard Salt  says Baby Boomers will wield significant economic power in the next decade and small businesses can prosper from their retirement (Travel Blog).  Mr Salt, a partner at KPMG, says an ”important transition” is taking place in which the baby boomer generation – born between 1946 and about 1966 – is reaching the official retirement age of 65.  This opens up new opportunities to service what Mr Salt calls ”the new narrative of life that will be lived between 55 and 72”.  In Australia alone, there are 4.5 million people passing through that phase over the next decade, whereas “previously there were barely 2.5 million people,” he says.  Baby boomers are ”intrinsically high consumers” compared with their ”frugal and modest” predecessors.

It’s an opportunity for businesses to determine what this group will want. ”It’s got to pitch to their needs; they’re not going to be hiking for five days to get to Machu Picchu, are they?”  Opportunities might be in areas such as over-60s travel, health and fitness, medical technology, succession planning (legal services, financial planning and conveyancing), or money-making volunteering enterprises.  “Boomers have big expectations in retirement, which I think is going to be a challenge for government and for big business” says Salt.

According to Mr Salt, businesses should reconsider their marketing strategies. Over-55s policies for example, which group baby boomers with 80-year-olds – people their parents’ age – are ”actually offensive”.

There are businesses starting up to cater to baby boomers.  For example, Fran Sirio, 54, launched Entice Travel Services in 2011, a boutique business focusing on over-55s.  The former national sales manager at Australian Pacific Touring travels overseas with her clients, acting as mobile concierge for people who don’t want to organise their travel.  It’s more time-consuming and demanding than a normal travel-guide gig, but Sirio prefers her cautious – though dependent – pleasure-seekers.  ”They’ve got the time, the money, the patience – they’re just lovely,” Ms Sirio says.   Ms Sirio says marketing to an age range that has vastly different skills and experiences is the most difficult aspect of her business.

Source:  Travel Blog

New Zealand’s Inaugural Universal Design Conference will take place in Auckland on 24 May.  The conference is supported by Auckland Council, Lifemark, and the Ministry of Social Development.  Universal Design (UD) is a design concept that aims to create environments, products, learning programmes and systems that can be used by as many people as possible. “Universal Design makes things more accessible, safer, and convenient for everyone….[It] is a philosophy that can be applied to policy, design and other practices to make products, environments and systems function better for a wider range of people. It developed in response to the diversity of human populations, their abilities and their needs” (IDeA Center, University at Buffalo, State University of New York). In the tourism, travel, and hospitality  environment, using UD concepts leads to activities and attractions, restaurants, and cafes, and all forms of transport that are usable by all people, able bodied and those with a disability, seniors who are not as agile as they once were, travellers with heavy bags, parents with pushchairs and so on. 

There are several good reasons to think about Universal Design in New Zealand.  Firstly there is much talk in central and local government circles about inclusiveness and liveable communities but a lack of understanding of what this really means.  Secondly, the rebuilding of earthquake-damaged Christchurch is a great opportunity to build a city for all people.  Thirdly, New Zealand has a high rate of accident and injury.  A growing population means that medium and high density housing is the way of the future.  Finally, as with most countries, New Zealand’s population is ageing.  In addition, tourism is a major industry in New Zealand, and already about 43% of our international visitors are 45 years old or older.  Using universal design in developing our tourism industry is a must if we are to retain and grow this visitor sector.

The aims of the conference are to raise awareness of universal design and how it can benefit society and businesses, and to inspire individuals and organisations within the built environment industries to take the initiative and lead New Zealand towards creating places that are enjoyable and safe.  The conference is aimed at people involved in the built environment industries (design, development and construction), business, planning, infrastructure, economic development, human resources, environmental design, residential facilities, community service, policy, strategy and anyone interested in creating liveable and inclusive communities.

Discussion topics will include UD theory, demographics and the ageing community,  human rights, social and economic benefits, future proofing, local government policies, strategies and plans, housing, and commercial development, building codes.

The Ministry of Tourism Malta is to implement various initiatives to facilitate accessibility in the tourism sector.  A new website – Accessible Tourism Malta – has been created aimed at providing information, which will be constantly updated, to promote accessible tourism and facilitating exchange mechanisms, especially in the low season.   The website is part of “Accessible Culture For All”, a project co-financed by the EU which aims to raise awareness about social tourism and identify ways how to help the tourism industry to increase competitiveness by targeting new markets. “The concept of social tourism is built around the fact that tourism is an experience that everyone should have access to, without discrimination of age, physical abilities, income, status or social conditions,” Malta’s Minister of Tourism said.

The Minister explained how the Government, along with the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and stakeholders, is working to strengthen the Maltese tourism product, improve accessibility and promote the Maltese islands.  The MTA, in collaboration with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities and partners from Finland and Croatia is aiming to develop a culture that facilitates the concept of social tourism and accessibility for the disabled.  Finland will have an active role in the project and will identify the best practices being undertaken in the field of accessible tourism. Finland will share with Malta and Croatia the new market strategies that are currently developing in Finland, and host a workshop on accessibility in Finland. The Ministry for Tourism in Croatia will also host discussions with associations that work on disability matters and with other related stakeholders. They will identify the present gaps and tap opportunities that may be developed to improve the accessibility dimension of the tourism product and the service offer.

A national audit has been carried out by the architectural firm Doric Studio to help identify the gaps between the requirements of people with disabilities and the tourism product on offer in Malta.  The results will help formulate a model to meet the interest of the private sector and generate a handholding process supported by the MTA for establishments prepared to tailor their service for the disabled.

The recently released New Zealand Core Tourism Data Set shows that ageing Baby Boomers continue to be a large chunk of New Zealand’s international visitor arrivals. In fact, visitors to New Zealand 45 years old and older have risen in the last decade from 40% of total overseas arrivals in the year ended January 2003 to 43% in the year ended January 2013. Those aged 65 or older rose from 9% to 9.6% of total visitor arrivals over the same ten year period.

Nevertheless, Tourism New Zealand (the organization responsible for marketing New Zealand to the world) has since 2010 undertaken targeted campaigns to capture and grow the youth market (those aged 18-29) which they say is an influential market which today accounts for a quarter of total arrivals in New Zealand each year. While it is hard to draw comparisons using the just released New Zealand Core Tourism Data Set mentioned above because those figures are based on ten year age groups (for example, 15-24, 25-34 years of age etc) an analysis of younger arrivals from the Statistics New Zealand Infoshare Tool is revealing. According to those figures, those aged 15 to 29 went from being 24% in the year ended December 2002 to 23% to the year ended December 2012. Therefore, the percentage of younger arrivals to New Zealand has actually dropped while that of older visitors has risen.

While there is nothing wrong with going after the youth market, perhaps New Zealand should spend more time trying to attract the older market, which is increasing in size in all its traditional markets and in new markets it is trying to attract, such as China.

At the recent UN Twelfth Meeting of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (Madrid, March 2013), the committee discussed the on-going updating of the 2005 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) recommendations on “Accessible Tourism for All”. The revised Recommendations will be submitted for approval to the upcoming UNWTO General Assembly next August.  Accessibility is a key area of UNWTO’s work in sustainable tourism development.  Committee members also welcomed the production of a “Manual on Developing Universal Accessibility”, a result of UNWTO’s collaboration with the Spanish Fundacion ONCE , the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) and the ACS Foundation, expected to be available later this year.

The World Committee on Tourism Ethics is the impartial body responsible for interpreting, applying and evaluating the provisions of the UNWTO Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET). A subsidiary organ of the UNWTO General Assembly, the Committee reports directly to the Assembly. Members are elected in their personal capacities and not as officials of governments or representatives of their countries.  Adopted in 1999 by the UNWTO General Assembly and endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001, the UNWTO GCET is a set of principles designed to guide the development of tourism in a way that maximizes the socio-economic benefits of the sector, while minimizing any negative impacts.

Pieter Ghijsels, Policy advisor in Accessible Tourism, Tourism Flanders writes in the latest issue of Le Tourisme Social dans le Monde (Social Tourism International 154:7*) about how the Tourism Board of Flanders has as a goal to enable every Flemish citizen to participate in tourism.  In 2001, an accessibility action plan was developed and accessibility has become a standard condition for grants by Tourism Flanders.  In addition, in 2007 Tourism Flanders created a “label”, which describes the level of access at a business and provides information on access in a databank.  “The label was originally only available for holiday accommodation, but will be extended towards tourist information offices and recreational premises”, writes Ghijsels.    The project “The Great War Centenary: accessible to everyone” in the Westhoek region is a pilot project in which the idea of ‘accessible holiday destination’ is manifest. With the experience gained, further work on an Accessible Flanders will be carried out in the other regions.  The project fits perfectly within the strategic goal of Tourism Flanders to improve the international reputation of Flanders as a tourist destination and develop a quality, exciting and sustainable destination for people with disability.

*Social Tourism International is produced by OITS-ISTO, an organisation with the express purpose of promoting access to tourism for all.

Brian Seaman, who has spent 20 years looking at issues in Accessible Tourism and helping businesses of all sizes to make their facilities more welcoming for all guests, has a new website.  Accessible Outlook  has been set up to further this work.

Seaman has listened to thousands of people who have firsthand knowledge of how difficult it can be to travel, find somewhere suitable to stay, places to visit, or places to eat.  He has parlayed this information into a form useful to working groups, access groups, access auditors, advisors, business management and staff, and the tourism industry through official channels.  In all his work, he has involved disabled people in every aspect.   His expertise is supported by his knowledge of the British Building Regulations and British Standards.  He has also worked full-time for the past 19 years for the national charity Tourism for All UK and has seen many changes during this time.

The website has useful links to such things as creating Access Statements, making website and printed information accessible, safety, creating accessible transport, accommodation, and attractions, and the National Accessible Scheme (a scheme in England which rates visitor accommodation for access).   Visit the website here or follow Brian on Twitter (@BrianMSeaman)

Ivor Ambrose, Managing Director of the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) writes in the latest issue of Le Tourisme Social dans le Monde (Social Tourism International 154: 5-6) about the important role of the Social Tourism sector in enabling hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities (PwDs) and their families to have accessible holidays.  Social Tourism International is produced by OITS-ISTO, an organisation with the express purpose of promoting access to tourism for all.  ENAT, which works with OITS-ISTO, offers training and guidance to overcome the gaps in knowledge and awareness about accessibility among tourism businesses, their managers and staff.  Ambrose points out that the European market for PwD tourism is 134 million people (27% of the European population) when family and friends are included.  “Often their needs and requirements are unknown or misunderstood; investment costs are accordingly exaggerated. And with a dominating focus on “compliance” with laws and regulations, accessibility is seen mainly as a problem for businesses, rather than a golden opportunity” writes Ambrose. “Fundamentally, there needs to be a change of attitude in the tourism industry, recognising that guests of all ages and abilities are part of every tourism segment.”

The 7th International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destination will be held this year in Barcelona-Catalunya from 1-4 October. Responsible Tourism is about making better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit.  The meeting will be co-chaired by Mr. Jordi Ficapal, Responsible Tourism Observatory Director, TSI-Turisme Sant Ignasi (Universitat Ramon Llull), and Professor Harold Goodwin, ICRETH, Leeds Metropolitan University.  One of the conference themes is

 “Widening social participation in tourism: access for all”. 

This will take place on the academic day (1 October) at TSI-Turisme Sant Ignasi (Universitat Ramon Llull), at Carrer de Marqués de Mulhacén, 40-42, next to the conference venue.   Other themes are:

• Managing Cruise Tourism in the Mediterranean
• Taking responsibility for the environmental impacts of tourism
• The role of government in destination planning and management
• Sense of place in historic cities: local communities, authenticity and the visitor experience

The Catalonia Responsible Tourism Award will run parallel to the RTD7.  Catalonia had 26 million visitors in 2011, Barcelona’s tourism has grown rapidly since they hosted the Olympics in 1992 and they have done a great deal to responsibly manage the more than 7 million visitors the city hosts each year.  One of the awards will be for “Accessibility” (others can be found here).

VisitScotland recognizes that the accessible market is a growing and lucrative one. From January – June 2009, domestic trips to Scotland by visitors with access needs brought £121 million into the Scottish economy in just six months. This rose to £325m for the 11 month period 2009/10.  Currently 11 million people in the UK are disabled (16% of the population). VisitScotland says that the market is set for growth.  “As the population ages, the prevalence of disability increases. In fact, 33% of 50 – 65 year olds and 42% of people over 65 have a disability.  Tapping into the accessible market can give tourism businesses a better return on investment, higher occupancy rates, and a loyal and returning customer base”.

To that end, VisitScotland aims to ensure that Scotland is accessible to everyone.  Accessibility issues aren’t limited to visitors with permanent physical disabilities. They also apply to those with mental health conditions, parents with small children, senior travellers, and people with temporary injuries – as well as their travel companions.  In order to explore the massive economic potential of working with the Accessible Tourism market, VisitScotland will run a free industry conference on 12 March from 09.15 – 16.00 at the EICC, Edinburgh.  Speakers include:

• Fergus Ewing MSP – Minister for Energy, Enterprise & Tourism
• David Grevemberg, CEO, Glasgow Commonwealth 2014
• Caroline Casey, Founder, Kanchi
• Mike Cantlay, Chairman, VisitScotland

There will also be a range of afternoon workshops including best practice case studies, tips on writing access statements and customer care advice.  Registration for the conference is now open.

The ONCE Foundation for cooperation and inclusion of people with disabilities invites participation in the IV International Congress of Tourism for All, in Ávila, Spain, 26-28 June 2013.  The World Tourism Organization (WTO), the European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT), the European Institute of Design for All (EIDD) and the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade are collaborating in this event.  The central focus of the congress is Cultural and Historical Heritage.

Objectives

• To raise awareness of the need to establish strong guidelines for Design for All  and Universal Accessibility.
• To highlight examples of good practices in Tourism for All.
• To show that Accessible Tourism is profitable
• To unify criteria concerning accessibility in Tourism for All.
• To enhance the role of culture as a source of tourist resources.
• To consider conversion of cultural potential into tourism products tailored      to all needs.
• To show the employment opportunities for people with disabilities within the  growing development of cultural tourism.
• To raise awareness of the need to achieve full accessibility of culture in      order to progress and develop society, with greater visibility and an      active participation of people with disabilities
• To achieve a greater participation of cultural actors in the tourism industry      for all.

One of the objectives of the ONCE Foundation is the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all areas. The access of persons with disabilities to the historical and cultural heritage gives them the option of experiencing the culture of a place.  In addition, the establishment of Design for All in new cultural tourism offerings raises awareness of the importance of Design for All and Universal Accessibility.

Expected Participants

• Professionals in cultural management and tourism technicians
• Schools of tourism and hotel management
• Social orkers, who have to respond to the demands of access to culture and      leisure in an inclusive way
• Professionals of Universal Accessibility and Design for All
• Professionals of tourism and hotel management (hoteliers, restaurateurs, enologists, etc.), who have to consider that to use the criteria of Universal      Accessibility and Design for All is a business opportunity and those who      already use them have to show their experience to the rest
• Professionals      in the elaboration of typical products of gastronomy (wine, oils, etc.) that use the criteria of Design for All and Universal Accessibility,      incorporating them to the specific needs of people with disabilities
• Companies dedicated to the Services and Care for people with special needs
• Sponsors
• Organizations representing people with disabilities, elderly people and others
• User organizations.

Participation is open to everyone as:

• An attendee
• A speaker
• An exhibitor of leisure and culture items related to tourism
• A  provider of workshops
• Presenting good practices
• Presenting works and projects of research, completed or not, to exchange experiences

The agenda of the Congress is open to all proposals that might be interesting to Tourism for All and the tourism sector in general, and in particular all those experiences, projects or proposals that have to do with cultural tourism for all, especially in the historical and cultural heritage arena.   The languages of the Congress will be Spanish and English.  The call for papers and other details of the Congress are available on the ENAT website, the source of this article.

In 2010, The Government of Ontario released a study looking at the potential economic impact of achieving substantially higher levels of accessibility.  Also in that year, the Province  introduced five proposed standards through which the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005 is implemented. These standards are intended to achieve substantially higher levels of accessibility. The study – Releasing Constraints: Projecting the Economic Impact of Improved Accessibility for Ontarians – reviews the potential economic impact of increased accessibility on individuals, on markets, and on social units. The study predicts that Ontario’s businesses will benefit from these standards, including by increased access to tourism opportunities.  Ontario Ministry of Tourism expenditure data was used to examine the potential impacts of AODA on the Ontario tourism industry.  The results suggest that Ontario could potentially see an increase in tourism expenditures from anywhere between Can$400 million and Can$1.6 billion due to the combined direct and indirect effects of AODA. These increases would mean total tourism expenditures in Ontario would grow to a level between Can$22.5 billion and Can$23.7 billion in five years.  The study was conducted by the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity, and the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in cooperation with the Nippon Foundation and the Asia-Pacific Development Centre on Disability recently launched a disability-inclusive business award during a high-level intergovernmental meeting on disability in Incheon, Republic of Korea.  The pioneering “ESCAP-Sasakawa Asia-Pacific Business Award” seeks to publicly recognise and reward businesses that demonstrate good practices in engaging or catering to, the needs of persons with disabilities in their business operations; to raise awareness of the opportunities available for the private sector to include persons with disabilities in their business operations; and to catalyse Asia-Pacific leadership in disability-inclusive business.  In Asia and the Pacific, there are 650 million persons with disabilities, a market twice the size of the euro zone. By catering to the needs of persons with disabilities, enterprises can expand their market share and tap into a new pool of potential customers representing sizeable purchasing power. As potential employees, persons with disabilities have special expertise and tacit knowledge that can help businesses reach a larger customer base.  The Award launch was held during the “High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Final Review of the Implementation of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 2003-2012″ convened by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea in Incheon from 29 October to 2 November.

The first Award will be conferred in late 2013, marking the first year of the new Asian and the Pacific Decade for Persons with Disabilities, 2013-2022.

The Global Agenda Council on Ageing Society report, “Global Population Ageing: Peril or Promise” points out that

• The global share of those 60+was 8% in 1950,      11% in 2011, and will be 22% (2 billion) in 2050
• The global population is projected to      increase 3.7 times from 1950 to 2050, but the 60+ will increase by a factor of nearly 10, and the 80+ by a factor of 26
• Women account for about 55% of the 60+ group, rising to 64% of the 80+ group and 82% of the 100+ group. On  average, women outlive men by nearly 4.5 years.

Baby boomers in Asia-Pacific will account for 63% of the world’s total seniors population by 2050.  They will have US$1.9 trillion in spending power. According to the latest Ageing Asia Alliance Journal (AAAJ), their spending power will significantly drive economic growth in industries such as tourism and transportation, wellness, education, finance, and  healthcare.  AAAJ goes on to say that “there is a need for businesses to change their mindsets in how they view grey power, and also start paying more attention towards innovation and product design with the older consumers in mind.  Ageing is both a social and economic opportunity.  It would be advantageous for businesses to monitor Asia Pacific’s demographic trends and also keep the ageing consumer needs in mind for their future development of products and services.” AAAJ ponts out that Asia’s ageing baby boomers are looking to age healthily, well, and independently. Businesses that understand the significance of the benefits of healthy ageing can take advantage of commercial opportunities to deliver such services as tourism and active lifestyles, and thus enable older people to stay healthier, longer and encourage social inclusion (source: Ageing Asia Alliance).

Japan has one of the fastest-growing seniors populations in the world. Spending power of the over 60s in Japan is estimated at 100 trillion yen, or 44% of the nation’s entire personal spending. From cosmetics to travel, affluent retirees are spawning a host of new business opportunities.

In the USA, there is no doubt about the importance of the Baby Boomer generation to business.  There are 76 million American Boomers, and they control over 80% of personal financial assets, and more than 50% of discretionary spending in the USA.
A Met Life study estimates that American Boomers will inherit $8.4 trillion in the next few years (with a total transfer of assets to them estimated at $11.6 trillion – Met Life).

In New Zealand, the Boomers are the biggest cohort, with 1.25 million members. Boomers are the biggest group of Australian and New Zealand visitors in the Asia Pacific region, and the percentage of visitors to New Zealand who are over the age of 45 slowly and steadily increases every year.

Any businesses  – including tourism businesses – that do not plan to cater for the ageing  population (and the concomitant increase in the number of people with various types of disability)  –  are ignoring a golden business opportunity.

There are about one billion people in the world who have a disability (WHO, WB).  For several years, the European Union has been promoting a policy of active integration for disabled people and encouraging their full participation in society.  Making tourism accessible is a social responsibility but also an issue for tourism competitiveness in Europe.  To that end, a conference will be held on 28 November on “Accessible Tourism, an Investment for Europe!” reports the European
Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT).  The venue is the Île-de-France European Representation, 10 rue Montoyer, 1000 Bruxelles.  The Paris Île-de-France Region, through its tourism board and the Veneto Region developed a strategy to improve the accessibility of their territory aiming at improving the quality of their destinations.  European regions have, in the frame of the new taskforce “accessible tourism” from the Network of European Regions for a Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (NECSTour) network, committed themselves to pursue and improve this strategy to increase incomes and make their resources accessible to everyone.  This conference will be an opportunity to think about relevant actions to make tourism in the EU more accessible. The participants will share their views on how the different levels of the EU governance can work together to shape the future of accessible and inclusive
tourism.

The programme is available on the ENAT website.  For further information, Email tourisme@iledefrance-europe.eu

VisitEngland, the national tourist board, recently launched a new online training course to help tourism businesses deliver excellent service to disabled customers. Designed in partnership with award-winning disability organisation DisabledGo, the course is specifically tailored to help those working within the tourism industry. One thousand free spaces have been made available to tourism businesses in England, and businesses can register up to 5 places each by visiting the DisabledGo site.

The course consists of six online modules, which take one to two hours to complete.  The training starts with an introduction to disability, and then looks at different types of impairment, before offering practical advice on providing an accessible service and acceptable language to use when communicating with disabled customers. The final section talks through the legal obligations of tourism businesses under the Equality Act (2010). Progress can be saved throughout the course, allowing the user to log off and complete it over several hours or days, if necessary. When finished, a certificate can be downloaded.

James Berresford, VisitEngland’s Chief Executive, commented: “It is vital that those working within the tourism industry have the knowledge and confidence to offer excellent customer service to disabled visitors, particularly as we prepare for the many exciting events taking place across England in 2012. Over £2 billion is spent in England by disabled visitors and their companions each year, and this new online Disability Awareness Course will enable staff to be more aware of their specific needs, providing a high quality and memorable visitor experience.”

DisabledGo provides access information, access audits, equality and disability awareness training programmes.

Scott Rains, in an essay on the Rolling Rains Report, discusses “framing” in the context of accessible tourism.   Using Jim A. Kuypers definition of frames and framing (see below), Rains notes that those currently framing the adoption of Universal/Inclusive Design by the travel and hospitality industry include Candy Harrington at Emerging Horizons, Simon Darcy at Accessible Tourism Research, Sandra Rhodda at Access Tourism NZ, Dimitrius Buhalis at Bournemouth University, members of SATH, and ENAT.

Rains goes on to write:

The overview on frame analysis at Wikipedia lists four ways of aligning the desired frame with the consensus frame of a given group:

• Frame bridging
• Frame amplification
• Frame extension
• Frame transformation

Frame bridging is the “linkage of two or more ideologically congruent but structurally unconnected frames regarding a particular issue or problem” (Snow et al., 1986, “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review 51: 464-481). It involves the linkage  of a movement to “unmobilized [sic] sentiment pools or public opinion preference clusters” (p. 467) of people who share similar views or grievances but who lack an organizational base.

Frame amplification refers to “the clarification and invigoration of an interpretive  frame that bears on a particular issue, problem, or set of events” (Snow et al., 1986, p. 469). This interpretive frame usually involves the invigorating of values or beliefs.

Frame extensions are a movement’s effort to incorporate participants by extending the boundaries of the proposed frame to include or encompass the views, interests,  or sentiments of targeted groups.

Frame transformation is a process required when the proposed frames “may not resonate with, and on occasion may even appear antithetical to, conventional lifestyles or rituals and extant interpretive frames” (Snow et al., 1986, p. 473).

When this happens, new values, new meanings and understandings are required in order to secure participants and support. Goffman (1974, Frame Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 43-44) calls this “keying” where “activities, events, and biographies that are already meaningful from the standpoint of some primary framework transpose in terms of another framework” (Snow et al., 1986, p.  474) such that they are seen differently. There are two types of frame transformation:

Domain-specific transformations such as the attempt to alter the status of groups of people, and Global interpretive frame transformation where the scope of change is quite radical as in a change of world views, total conversions of thought, or uprooting of all that is familiar (e.g. moving from communism to market capitalism; religious conversion, etc.).

Rains gives a publication by Bill Forrester of Travability as an example of framing the debate.  This is “An Economic Model of Disability”.   He goes on to say that throughout the history of this campaign for social change we see an emphasis on domain-specific change for persons with disabilities such as begun by SATH evolving toward meta-constructs such approaching global interpretive frame transformation with Forrester’s writings suggesting an economic model of disability.

Kuypers definition of framing: Framing is a process whereby communicators, consciously or unconsciously, act to construct a point of view that encourages the facts of a given situation to be interpreted by others in a particular manner. Frames  operate in four key ways: they define problems, diagnose causes, make moral  judgments, and suggest remedies. Frames are often found within a narrative account of an issue or event, and are generally the central organizing idea.” (Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age , Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006).

Accessible and inclusive tourism has been little researched or developed in New Zealand (NZ).  One study published in 2007  showed that tourism operators do not understand this market, think it insignificant, and think their businesses accessible when they are mostly not.  Erroneous access information is often given to potential visitors with disabilities, buildings housing tourism information sites are often inaccessible, and tourism websites – including a government-run website – are often difficult or impossible to access.  In addition accessible tourism is not part of NZ’s tourism strategy.  This is in spite of the fact that comparatively rich Baby Boomers and seniors were- recently recognized by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT – now part of the Ministry of Economic Development) as NZ’s largest domestic market, and recognized by them as a market with members who may not travel because of health and disability concerns (Segmentation Report).

On the local level, while two or three councils have begun to include considerations of access in tourism information (albeit mostly through business self-assessment of access), most councils have no plans to develop accessible tourism (council survey).  Only about half of Regional Tourism Organizations (RTOs) know of the few accessible tourism businesses in their area, and few promote these businesses as accessible.  Only two of the  approximately 30 RTOs (and one of the approximately 80 councils) sent a representative to the first NZ accessible tourism conference in October 2010, showing that there is still little interest in this sector.

While no-one from the MoT –  or from its promotional agency Tourism NZ – attended that inaugural  conference, the central government – spurred on by holding the Rugby World Cup in 2011 – funded an NGO called Be Accessible to (amongst other things) create and administer access assessments of businesses.  In a major step forward, about 20 accommodation businesses, 70 activities and attraction), and 50 eateries and retail outlets have been assessed and listed on their website.  These are predominantly Auckland businesses, but the Auckland council tourism website does not carry or link to this information.   Be.Accessible has also posted access tips, a toolkit, and checklists.

The most recent NZ research – funded by the NZ National Foundation for the Deaf (NFD) and undertaken by the NZ Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI) and by AccessTourismNZ – examined the tourism, travel, and hospitality experiences and needs of local and international people with hearing loss.  The research shows that they travel for the same reasons as others, mostly travel with others, and would like to travel more but are prevented from doing so by cost and concern that their hearing needs will not be met.  Their most important access travel needs are good customer service, staff who have a “can-do” attitude, and reliable information about access for people with hearing loss, which they often find wrong or misleading.  The majority (90%) of NZ respondents and over half (55%) of international respondents feel that the level of service in the NZ tourism industry for visitors with hearing loss needs to be improved.

Apart from the work mentioned above, no other research on accessible tourism in New Zealand has been carried out.  In fact, there is more interest overseas in what NZ accessible tourism is like than there is in this country.  For example, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) sponsored AccessTourismNZ to talk about the NZ situation at an internationa conference in Japan in 2010, and ENAT and Fundacion ONCE did so for an international conference in Spain in 2011.  In NZ, there is little will to understand, discuss, attract, and accommodate this large and growing market.

An older, more extensive report on the state of accessible tourism in New Zealand is available here.

Members of the European Network of Accessible Tourism (ENAT) are leading a workshop on accessible tourism in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and participating in the Saudi Travel Market conference in Riyadh today.  The conference highlights the investment opportunities and the available potential in the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investments Market, and covers the tourism development strategies related to the business sector. Saudi Arabia generates a combined annual tourism market of 10.4 billion Euro, and is one of the top 22 inbound travel markets in the world. Inbound tourism has risen by 11% over the last two years. Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry is greatly under served and requires billions of Saudi Riyals in investment to develop to its full potential and is poised for extensive expansion and growth.

Accessible Tourism for All will be the theme of an evening workshop session at the conference in Riyadh on 3rd April and at a one-day Workshop in Jeddah.   The workshops are being held under the auspices of the Saudi Commission for Tourism  and Antiquities and the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce, respectively, and with the  participation of the Arab Tourism Organisation and the Prince Salman Centre for  Disability Research, amongst others.  Workshop speakers will present and discuss their experiences, research results and strategic plans from countries, destinations and attractions in Europe and the Middle East, showing how accessibility for people with disabilities and other specific requirements is being integrated in all parts of the tourism value chain.  They will discuss experiences and strategies with the Arab tourism sector, public authorities, chambers of commerce, researchers and NGOs.