Tourism for All's CEO, Ray Veal was at the British Tourism and Travel Show (BTTS) at the NEC recently, to join the panel session “Travel Without Limits: Designing for Accessibility and Inclusion”.
"The show was as packed as always, with a fascinating mix of destinations, attractions, accommodation and hospitality providers giving a taste of the variety and depth of experiences that are available to enjoy in the UK, alongside specialist technical and commercial service providers and trade associations.
My fellow panel members – Cheryl Everitt of A Wheel and Away, Hester Grainger of Perfectly Autistic and James Dixon-Box of the Marsham Court Hotel - were just as fascinating, bringing a range of viewpoints and a real breadth and depth of experience to our session.
The session was structured to allow each of us to present on our own areas - my role was to introduce the topic of accessibility, then to sum up, with some take away points, once the other panellists had presented on their specialist areas – before opening the floor to questions from the audience.
One of the things that advocates of accessible tourism regularly grapple with is how best to present to businesses the case for engaging with accessibility. In this session that wasn’t an issue, because the different interests and experiences of the panel members really highlighted that, no matter how compelling the figures may seem to be, they only tell half the story. Accessibility is about people.
I set out some of the key figures in my introduction:
16.1 million people in the UK – 1 in 4 of the population - identify themselves as disabled;
£14.1 billion per year is spent in England on domestic trips taken by those who have an impairment or who are part of a group where a member has an impairment - £1 in every £5 spent on domestic trips.
But then it was down to the real business, with Cheryl, Hester and James all speaking passionately, movingly and inspirationally about their areas. Their presentations were fascinating and what they all had in common was that the inspiration for each of them to become involved in accessible tourism and hospitality was the experience of family members.
I talked about how engaging with accessibility can positively impact the “3 Rs” of a tourism business – its Revenue, its Resilience and its Reputation – then finished with the key take aways that had emerged from the presentations:
All impairments and access needs are individual and different
No business can cater for every type and level of impairment or access need
Embracing accessibility and doing what you can will make a huge difference and get your journey underway
Accessibility is not as difficult – or as frightening – as you might think
Your business is probably already more accessible than you realise
To the vast majority of customers with access needs the welcome and service they receive are every bit as important as the facilities that are provided
The questions from the audience were searching and wide ranging – from “Why don’t hotels allow booking of accessible rooms online?” to “How important is it to make the natural world accessible?” – and the panel’s answers were fascinating and insightful.
This was a really engaging and informative session, which seemed to strike a chord with the audience. Thank you so much to my fellow panel members Cheryl, Hester and James for delivering such an enjoyable and rewarding experience!"
