In the latest of our series of reflections by members of our Board of Trustees, TFA Chair Kenny Boyle explains why disability is tourism's most obvious - and most overlooked - ESG opportunity
There is a version of the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance framework) conversation that makes even committed advocates wince a little: the carefully produced annual report featuring the obligatory photograph of the CEO handing over an oversized cheque, along with the page on the website that talks, in airless prose, about commitment and values and sustainable futures. ESG has become, in too many organisations, a performance of virtue rather than an exercise of it.
And that is a shame, because the underlying proposition, that businesses have obligations beyond their balance sheets and that meeting those obligations is not in tension with commercial success, is one of the most important ideas in modern business thinking.
So let me make the case plainly, and from the direction that tends to cut through the fog: profit.
“The E” is the easy one
Environmental sustainability, the first letter of the framework, has become, for well-run organisations, essentially a matter of common sense. Switching off the lights. Upgrading to LED. Managing heating and cooling more intelligently. Cutting single-use plastics. Reducing food waste in the kitchens. Reviewing supplier chains for embedded carbon.
These are, without exception, things that save money. The business that has decarbonised its energy use has also reduced its energy bills. The hotel that has eliminated single-use toiletry bottles has also reduced its purchasing costs. The restaurant that manages its food waste properly is also managing its margins more carefully. Environmental responsibility, executed competently, pays for itself. Often within months.
This is not to trivialise “the E”. Climate commitments require genuine investment and structural change, but the direction of travel is clear, and the financial logic runs in only one direction. Good environmental practice and profitable operation are, in the long run, the same thing. Boards have internalised this and the debate has largely moved on.
“The S” is where it gets harder
“The S”, Social value, is where organisations tend to slow down, look uncomfortable, and reach for language that is less convincing.
This is partly structural. The environmental case offers legible metrics but the social case is harder to reduce to a dashboard. Community benefit, workforce inclusion, the wellbeing of people beyond the immediate customer transaction all matter enormously but resist easy quantification. Which means that in the competition for board attention and budget allocation, “the S” tends to lose out.
It also tends to lose out because organisations are not always sure what to do. Charitable donations are the default - simple to make and easy to communicate. But a charitable donation is not in itself a social strategy.
For operators in the tourism and hospitality sector there is one social issue that is more obvious, more directly relevant, more commercially significant, and more straightforwardly actionable than for almost any other industry. And most businesses are barely touching it.
One in four
Around one in four people in the UK, 16.8 million, has a recognised disability. The figure has grown by 4.9 million in the last decade, driven not by a collapse in national health but by improving diagnosis, reducing stigma, and a growing recognition of the full range of conditions that constitute disability. Around 80% of those 16.8 million people have a condition that is not immediately visible: neurodivergent conditions, hearing loss, chronic illness, mental health conditions, chronic pain.
These are your customers. They are also your potential employees, and in an industry that struggles to attract and retain good people, a workforce that actively includes disabled people is a workforce with a broader and deeper talent pool than most.
When disabled visitors do find a business that genuinely serves them well, they stay longer, spend more, and come back. The average inbound disabled visitor stays 12.2 nights compared to 7.7 for visitors overall. In an industry that spends heavily on loyalty, here is a customer base already predisposed to it, if businesses would meet them halfway.
The “Purple Pound”, the collective spending power of disabled households, is estimated at over £274 billion annually across the UK economy. VisitBritain puts disabled visitors' contribution to England's tourism sector alone at £14.6 billion a year. Their analysis suggests that by removing the key barriers that currently deter disabled people from travelling an additional £1 billion in spending could be unlocked. That is not found money in a rounding error. That is a structural commercial opportunity the industry is currently declining.
The most obvious social investment tourism can make
If you run a business in tourism and hospitality, and you are looking for a place to direct your ESG social spend that will be directly relevant to your sector, genuinely valuable to the people it serves, commercially rational, and aligned with your legal obligations under the Equality Act, the answer is not complicated.
Invest in disability inclusion. In your workforce and in your customer experience: in training for staff to build a real understanding of their customers’ needs; systems that make it easy for guests to register their particular requirements when booking and assurance that this information will be acted on; and public spaces designed with the full diversity of your customers in mind.
These are not necessarily expensive interventions. Start with your customer facing team. The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme, for example, costs nothing to join but is a globally recognised signal that staff are trained and aware. More than three million lanyards have been distributed worldwide and the returns, in customer satisfaction, repeat visits, and reputation, are measurable.
TFA: a ready-made partnership
Tourism for All has spent 45 years working at this intersection: the point where disability rights, commercial hospitality and genuine social impact meet. We are the UK's leading charity for accessible tourism, and partnering with TFA can take several forms. We offer practical training programmes that build the understanding your front-of-house staff need to serve disabled customers well; resources that help businesses understand what disabled customers actually need; membership of, and access to, a network of committed businesses whose experience others can learn from; a heightened profile and recognition from new audiences; and outputs that can be measured and reported on.
This is not the oversized cheque photograph. It is the kind of social investment that makes a business better at its core purpose: welcoming guests, serving customers, looking after people.
The governance question
“The G” in ESG, governance, tends to be treated as a separate matter: board composition, audit processes, executive pay. That is not wrong. But there is a governance dimension to disability inclusion that is worth naming.
The Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled customers and employees. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the UK in 2009, specifically names tourism as a sector where disabled people must have access on equal terms with everyone else. These are not aspirational commitments. They are legal obligations, and businesses that treat accessibility as optional are exposing themselves to risk that a well-governed organisation should not be carrying.
Good governance, in other words, includes taking disability seriously. And the business that can say, truthfully, that its social ESG commitment includes systematic investment in disability inclusion, staff training, and partnership with the sector's leading accessibility charity, is also a business that is managing its legal and reputational risk more intelligently than one that cannot.
The simple version
All good organisations are engaging with ESG. It is no longer a differentiator, but a baseline expectation. For the tourism and hospitality industry there is one social investment that is more obviously right than almost any other. One in four of our customers is disabled, most in ways we cannot see. Many have learned, through long experience, not to expect much from our sector and so they don't travel, or they travel less, or they carry a planning burden that the rest of the travelling public need not experience. The commercial opportunity is enormous. The social impact opportunity is even stronger. And the legal framework is unambiguous.
The missing ingredient is not money. It is will. Tourism for All is here to help you find it.
The TFA45 Appeal
This is Tourism for All’s 45th anniversary year. We began life as a campaign, instigated back in 1981 by the Holiday Care Service, and were established later when the Holiday Care Service joined with sister charities to form a new organisation, called Tourism for All.
During the last 45 years there have been significant shifts in our understanding of and attitudes toward disability and impairment, as well as in legislation and product development, which have impacted on the accessibility of tourism in the UK. Throughout this time Tourism for All has acted as a supporter and enabler in the development and delivery of these public policy initiatives. The original Tourism for All campaign’s call to action and aspiration, that disabled people should not be excluded from social activities like trips and holidays, is as relevant today as it was 45 years ago.
Throughout the year, members of our Board of Trustees will share their personal reflections on different aspects of our disability and accessibility journey, highlighting the progress that has been made – and what still remains to be achieved to remove the barriers which still prevent disabled people, and those they travel with, from enjoying tourism experiences.
We are highly dependent on technology to deliver our objectives. To ensure that we can continue to discharge our role as a supporter and enabler of accessible tourism in the UK most effectively, we are planning major upgrades to our IT systems, including our ‘Travel Planner’ website and our online TFA Training platform.
To help us to fund these upgrades, which are vital to our sustainable future, we have launched our TFA45 Appeal. During 2026, in recognition of the work the charity has delivered over the last 45 years, we hope to raise £45,000 in donations. If our agenda has resonance with you or your organisation your support would be greatly appreciated.
You can make a donation here. Thank you.
https://www.tourismforall.co.uk/charity/join-tfa/make-a-donation
