People with disabilities should have an equal right for travelling. However, they have always been overlooked. Now, you, a hotel's owner at your place, wish to create an equal travelling opportunity to disabled people.
1.Identify a group of disabled people (e.g., wheelchair users, visual disabilities, hearing loss, intellectual disabilities) you wish to provide the travelling service to. Illustrate their FIVE (5) needs clearly. For instance, fundamental needs (eating/dining, shelter), safety needs, mobility needs (transportation), social needs (communication/ social activities, leisure activities, caregiver), etc. (20 marks)
2.From the text itself, we know that 'Disabled people are often deprived of key three things: good information, appropriate facilities and positive attitudes from other people.' Propose how you are going to provide the above three things, in details, to your target group.
a. Good information (e.g., how you deliver the information to your target group?)
(10 marks)
b. Appropriate facilities (e.g., the design of your facilities) (15 marks)
c. Positive attitudes from other people (e.g., services that might add value to your customer) (15 marks)
3.Design a 4-day-3-night package to address the needs of your target customer that you identified in Question 1. In your package, please state clearly what kind of services / values that you are going to provide to this group of disabled people. (20 marks)
4.Propose how you are going to market your hotel. Please use marketing 4-Ps to illustrate your marketing strategies.?25 marks?
How the travel industry still ignores people with disabilities seems to have worked." It may seem odd that ecotourism - a form of tourism that values ethics and sustainability - does Brian Garrod, Professor of Marketing, Swansea University not appear to be leading the industry in tearing down barriers to disabled travel. July 29, 2021 But recent research found that even businesses with the highest level of ecotourism accreditation As restrictions are gradually lifted, travelling abroad will be a high priority for many people. But did little to accommodate the needs of disabled guests. for a disabled person, getting away on holiday can seem like a distant dream - with or without a pandemic. Universal travel People with disabilities are still subjected to systematic discrimination when it comes to travel. With respect to information, only 2% of the websites in that study - which focused on Australia They face barriers that non-disabled people do not, which can prevent them from going on - had a detailed information pack for disabled people to download. And while some businesses holiday - or at least drastically limit their choice about where to go and what to do. considered themselves to be disability-friendly, facilities tended to only consider wheelchair access. Even before COVID-19, one survey found that 52% of adults with a disability in the UK had not taken a holiday anywhere in the previous 12 months. Even then, only 40% of all the websites provided any information to wheelchair users, while 6% The reasons are well known. Disabled people are often deprived of key three things: good mentioned visual disabilities and 8% referred to hearing loss. When it came to intellectual information, appropriate facilities and positive attitudes from other people. disabilities, only 8% even mentioned them. To this end, many countries, including the UK, have introduced specific legislation to address Almost all of the websites failed to extend simply courtesies, such as using captions (known as these inequalities. The United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of People with alternative text) to explain to people with visual disabilities what is depicted in a photograph, or Disabilities asserts the rights of disabled people to participate in cultural life, leisure, recreation subtitling video material to help people with hearing disabilities. A quarter of the businesses and sports. required disabled people to contact them ahead of the visit to enquire about suitable facilities. You might expect this kind of political action means disabled people have equal access to travel. Thankfully, there are also operators who believe ensuring that disabled people have an equal But when I interviewed disabled travellers and people who work in ecotourism - in the UK, US, quality of experience to non-disabled people is an essential condition of being in business. Australia, Canada and Sweden - it became apparent that many holiday providers fail to value their disabled customers. This kind of approach needs to spread more widely. Disabled people will only truly have a right to a holiday when tourism businesses start to invest in adaptations for them. This means making There are some for example, who merely aim to comply with regulations. They do not think there provisions not only for wheelchair users but for all disability groups. is a sufficient market for disabled guests, so they only made practical changes - such as investing in ramps - if the law strictly demanded it. It also means adapting business practices, updating websites and training staff to be able to serve One disabled traveller told how he mentioned to an ecolodge manager: "You just need to fix a their disabled guests appropriately and sensitively. couple of things in the room and it'll be good.' It is estimated that there are around a billion disabled people across the world, representing The manager replied: "Why should we bother? We don't make enough money out of you guys to around 15% of the world's population. If the tourism industry is not willing to ensure these really justify it." guests are treated as equals, that should make everyone uncomfortable. If society wants to see travel as a human right, it should be a right for everyone. Other business owners found such changes expensive to implement, but were motivated by keeping up with "good practice". For this group, being disability-friendly made good business (Source: Garrod, B. (2021). Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/how-the-travel-industry-still-ignores-people- sense - but their efforts were often incomplete, only featuring in certain parts of the site for with-disabilities-163685) example, or for one particular kind of disability. As one study participant noted: "Instead of having the whole place accessible, mobility-wise, we People with disabilities should have an equal right for travelling. However, they have always just make sure at least two of the units and the main public areas are. That's an alternative that been overlooked. Now, you, a hotel's owner at your place, wish to create an equal travelling opportunity to disabled people
