To create a positive visitor experience, a key factor in obtaining economic benefits, the tourism industry must pay attention to all the elements that contribute to it, especially to accessibility. Visitor accessibility encompasses all tourism markets including seniors and people with disabilities, who have been defined through accessible tourism. This article offers a short presentation of the term accessible tourism, the existing research in the field and the main reasons why the worldwide tourism industry is seemly unaware of this particular market.accessible tourism, disabilities, market potential, research

Souca Maria Luiza

English

Research Papers in Economics

1154 
 
ACCESSIBLE TOURISM – THE IGNORED OPPORTUNITY 
Souca Maria Luiza 
Babe￿-Bolyai University Cluj Napoca, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration  
 
To create a positive visitor experience, a key factor in obtaining economic benefits, the tourism industry 
must  pay  attention  to  all  the  elements  that  contribute  to  it,  especially  to  accessibility.  Visitor 
accessibility encompasses all tourism markets including seniors and people with disabilities, who have 
been defined through accessible tourism. This article offers a short presentation of the term accessible 
tourism, the existing research in the field and the main reasons why the worldwide tourism industry is 
seemly unaware of this particular market.  
 
Keywords: accessible tourism, disabilities, market potential, research  
 
The article’s JEL classification: M31 
 
Introduction 
There is a large and profitable market out there that the tourism industry has been largely ignoring for a 
long time. This market is as big as over 650 million people worldwide and it’s estimated that by the end 
of 2020 it will reach an approximated 1.2 billion people (Darcy, 2008). It has a huge potential for 
growth and what’s more, research shows its members are more easily converted into regular costumers 
and on average they spend more per trip than the usual tourist. So who is this market? They are the ones 
that “accessible tourism” – a rather new concept – primarily targets.  
 
What is “accessible tourism”? 
Definition 
Accessible tourism enables people with access requirements including mobility, vision, hearing and 
cognitive dimensions of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the 
delivery of universally designed products, services and environments. This definition is inclusive of all 
people including those travelling with children in prams, people with disabilities and seniors.(Darcy and 
Dickson, 2009, p.34). Therefore it can be said that accessible tourism targets any segment of the market 
that prefers accessing a tourism experience with ease, whether is the seniors that may prefer walking up 
a gentle ramp than going up a large number of steep stairs or those with any type of disability, who will 
appreciate  more  tourism  facilities  with  continuous  pathways,  tactile  surfaces  and  clear  and  bright 
signage.  
According to ENAT, the European Network for Accessible Tourism, accessible tourism includes: 
-Barrier-free destinations: infrastructures and facilities. 
-Transport: by air, land and sea, suitable for all users. 
-High quality services: delivered by trained staff. 
-Activities, exhibits, attractions: allowing participation in tourism by everyone. 
-Marketing, booking systems, Web sites and services: information accessible to all. 
 
Situation Overview 
Is the tourism industry worldwide adapted to the needs of those requiring accessible tourism? Despite 
the fact that modern society is increasingly aware of the need to integrate people with any type of 
disabilities the answer is a resounding “no”. And while it can be argued that in order to function many 
tourism facilities comply with legislative requirements like accessible parking space and accessible 
toilets, clearly a step in the right direction, unfortunately that can’t be called true accessible tourism as 
there are no further developments to include requirements like: professional staff capable of dealing 1155 
 
with accessibility issues, wheelchair accessible vehicles, adapted hotel rooms and many more. The 
reasons to that are numerous and stem from two directions: 
-there is very little research that shows how the tourism industry can benefit from making changes in 
the tourism product development and delivery so that it can become more accessible. Only recently the 
European  Union  has  commissioned research that  shows  insight  into the  complexities of  accessible 
tourism (Buhalis et al., 2005) and in 2007 The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities 
and the International Day for People with Disabilities has internationally reinforced the language of 
disability  thus  helping  define  concepts  like:  accessible  destination  experiences,  accessible  tourism, 
access precincts, continuous (accessible) pathways and disability. Another important contributor to the 
accessible tourism research is the Australian Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Center which 
funded an Accessible Tourism Research Agenda that sought to create a sound research base on which 
the tourism industry and government marketing authorities can make more informed decisions. (Darcy, 
2008) 
-there is a perception that accessible tourism is “low yield” due to the stereotype that people with 
disabilities have significantly less disposable income and are more likely to be dependent on a pension. 
This argument has been used in the past as a deterrent to investment in accessible tourism and as long as 
there are too few case studies that can be given as examples of successful tourism enterprises offering 
accessible tourism experiences, it will continue to carry weight. Yet, according to the latest statistics the 
market for accessible tourism is continuously growing making it clear that to ignore its potential is to 
actually ignore fruitful business opportunities, a fact that several companies in Europe and US have 
counted on when designing offers clearly meant for this market niche. These pioneers can show through 
their example that accessible tourism can become a competitive edge, just like the case of Divi Hotels 
Resort  on  Bonaire  Island,  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  which  became  “famous  for  being  completely 
accessible”, their presentation brochures including images with the access ramp for those who need a 
wheelchair.   
 
Market size and Economic value 
In 1983 E. D Mills noted that “provisions for the disabled in any type of holiday situation can no longer 
be regarded as an optional extra” (Mills, 1983, p.81). Yet, several decades later researchers (Darcy, 
2006) have noted that despite the large numbers of people with disabilities living independently, their 
growing financial wealth and their desire to travel, this segment continues to be largely ignored by the 
tourism industry worldwide.  
What are the exact numbers? In Australia, for example, 20% of the population, or 4 million people, 
identify as having a disability. Of these people 520,000 have a mobility disability, 480,000 are blind or 
vision impaired, and 1 million are deaf or hearing impaired (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2003). Still 
Darcy’s  research (2008) estimates than in the 2003-2004 period the tourists with disabilities spent in 
Australia between $8034.68 million and $11980.272 million, contributed between $ 3075.5243 million 
and  $4580.219  million  to  Tourism  Gross  Value  Added  (12.27%−15.60%  of  total  tourism  GVA), 
contributed between $ 3885.168 million and $5787.435 million to Tourism Gross Domestic Product 
(11.02%−16.41% of total) and sustained between 51 820 and 77 495 direct jobs in the tourism industry 
(11.6%−17.3% of direct tourism employment). And Australia is not an isolated case. 
In the US alone there are more than 54 million people with disabilities, a market larger than that of 
African American or the Hispanics, representing almost 1 billion dollars in buying power (Kotler, 
2009), while the European Union countries’ OSSATE research (Buhalis et al.,2005) estimates that 
tourists with disabilities contribute €80 billion to the economy using gross demand estimates. Globally 
there are over 650 million people with disabilities (Fujiura and Rutkowskikmitta, 2001; Mercer and 
MacDonald, 2007), equating to about 10% of humanity. 
And this isn’t all of it. There is a direct link between aging and disability as a person is 14 times more 
likely to have a disability by the time they reach 65 years old than a four-year-old(Darcy, 2008), a trend 
shared by all western developed countries with a noticeable difference in Asian countries where the 1156 
 
ageing is occurring at a faster rate. (World Health Organization, 2007). What’s more, this generation of 
seniors, unlike past generations of older people, is seeking an active and adventurous experience for 
their post work lives, and tourism is seen as an important component of their quest of life experiences. 
Yet, the tourism industry continues to ignore this market as shown by the results of a study involving 
senior travelers  which has proven that despite the fact that seniors greatly value security and support 
elements in the bathrooms, visible signage in the halls, restaurants menus with big readable fonts and 
extra  heating  sources  (more  blankets available  per bed),   this type  of information is  not generally 
included in the advertising materials used by tourism enterprise, making it harder for them to choose 
old-age friendly destinations.(Howey et al., 1992).   
 
Accessible tourism consumer behavior 
People with disabilities are very appreciative of products that are adapted to their needs. According to 
Jim Tobias, the president of Inclusive Technologies, a consulting company specialized in “accessible 
products”, “people with disabilities have the tendency to become brand evangelists for the brand they 
love; if usually a consumer would tell another 10 people about their favorite product, people with 
disabilities could tell 10 times more people.”￿(Hsu, C.H.C., Powers, T., 2002).  
This point of view is also shared by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, DCMS for short, of 
the  British  Government,  who  has  taken  active  steps  for  changing  the  British  tourism  industry  in 
preparation for the Olympics and Paralympics Games of 2012. According to their statistics (DCMS, 
2010), disabled people: 
- become regular clients after finding a tourism facility that suits their needs;  
- tend to take longer holiday breaks than the average – 4 days as opposed to the average length of 
stay of 3 days – therefore spending more money per trip (£216 as opposed to £197 overall); 
- tend not to travel alone, as they are often accompanied by caregivers, family and friends: over 50% 
travel with a partner, 20 % with a child and between 21-25% with a companion.  
Combining these behavior characteristics with the great potential for growth, presented in the chapter 
before, makes the market containing senior and persons with disabilities a very attractive one. That’s 
why the mystery remains of why the tourism industry is still largely ignoring it. Fortunately, there are 
more and more case studies that show the fact that accessible tourism can be profitable: for example 
Holiday Inn and their specially targeted offer for hearing impaired people. According to their data the 
hearing impaired people segment includes from people with no hearing to people with different hearing 
problems, a number that in the US means 21 million persons. To approach this market Holiday Inn 
promoted their message through special magazines designed for those hearing impaired. And their 
strategy has paid off, in the first year after making the special offer Holiday Inn gained between 40000 
to 50000 travelers staying the night, from this segment alone. (Hsu, C.H.C., Powers, T., 2002) 
 
Conclusion 
Is ignoring the opportunity presented by accessible tourism a mistake? One quick look at the facts 
should show that the obvious answer is “yes”. The only fact that still remains uncertain is how the 
situation can be remediated. There are several things that can be done: 
1. Doing more research in the field. While the statistics presented in this article are relevant to the 
developed western countries, there almost none regarding the situation in the developing countries, such 
as Romania, who could benefit very much from identifying a tourism niche. Unfortunately, in the case 
of Romania, there is also a lack of official information regarding the situation of disabled people: by 
2003, there were 414.620 people with disabilities in the official statistics, or 1.97% of the population, 
far lower the average 10% for the EU countries, as estimated by UN statistics. (CNDR, 2004). 
2. Creating a business model that can be successfully put into practice.  
3. Involving the tourism industry. No matter how great the theoretical model is, until it’s put into 
practice and it has proven its efficiency, it won’t become a good argument. That’s why tourism industry 1157 
 
needs to be involved in the research, and only by seeing actual numbers and successful case studies, 
they will change their attitude and give accessible tourism the place it rightfully deserves. 
 
Literature: 
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003) Disability, aging and carers, Australia: summary of findings 
(Catalogue No.4430.0), Catalogue No.4430.0, Canberra: ABS. 
2. Buhalis, D., Michopoulou, E., Eichhorn, V.,Miller, G. (2005). Accessibility market and stakeholder 
analysis  -  One-Stop-Shop  for  Accessible  Tourism  in  Europe  (OSSATE).  Surrey,  United  Kingdom: 
University of Surrey. 
3.  Consiliul  Na￿ional  al  Disabilit￿￿ii  din  România  (2004)  Raportul  de  ￿ar￿  privind  dizabilitatea 
(handicapul) în România Available from http://cndr.anvr.ro/proiecte.php?do=p4 
4.  Darcy,  S.,  Dickson,  T.  (2009).  A  Whole-of-Life Approach to  Tourism:  The  Case  for  Accessible 
Tourism Experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 32-44. 
5. Darcy, S., Cameron, B., Pegg, S., Packer, T. (2008). Technical Report 90042: Developing Business 
Cases  for  Accessible  Tourism,  STCRC  technical  report  Available  from 
http://www.crctourism.com.au/BookShop/BookDetail.aspx?d=582. 
6. Darcy, S., Cameron, B., Dwyer, L., Taylor, T., Wong, E., & Thomson, A. (2008). Technical Report 
90064:  Visitor  accessibility  in  urban  centers  Available  from 
http://www.crctourism.com.au/BookShop/BookDetail.aspx?d=626 
7.  Darcy,  S.  (2006)  Setting  a  Research  Agenda  for  Accessible  Tourism,  Gold  Coast:  Sustainable 
Tourism for Cooperative Research Centre. 
8.  Department  for  Culture,  Media  and  Sport  (2010),  Accessible  tourism:  Making  it  work  for  your 
business - Available from www.culture.gov.uk. 
9."ENAT - European Network for Accessible Tourism" –         http://www.accessibletourism.org. 
10. Fujiura, G. L., Rutkowskikmitta, V. (2001) 'Counting Disability', In Albrecht, G. L., Seelman, K. 
D., Bury, M. (Eds.) Handbook of Disability Studies (69-96). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications. 
11.  Howey,  R.M.,  Mangala,  A.,  De  Micco,  F.J.,  Moreo,  P.J.,  Marketplace  Needs  of  Mature 
Travelers, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quaterly 33, no.4, 19-20. 
12. Hsu, C.H.C., Powers, T. (2002) Marketing hospitality, John Wiley&Sons, Inc., New York. 
13.  Kotler,  P.,  Bowen  J.T.,  Makens,  J.C  (2009) Marketing  for  Hospitality  and  Tourism,  Pearson 
Education, Inc., New Jersey. 
14. Mercer, S. W., MacDonald, R. (2007) 'Disability and human rights', The Lancet, 370(9587), p.548–
549 
15. Mills, E. D. (1983) Design for Holidays and Tourism, London: Butterworths. 
16.  World  Health  Organization  (2007)  Global  Age-friendly  Cities  Guide  Available  from 
http://www.who.int/ageing/age_friendly_cities/en/index.html. 
 
   

ACCESSIBLE TOURISM – THE IGNORED OPPORTUNITY

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ACCESSIBLE TOURISM – THE IGNORED OPPORTUNITY

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