Part 3: Will Accessibility Be the Next Big Differentiator in Travel?

A Growing Niche in Travel  

This is the third installment about the mindsets I’ve observed within the travel industry about accessibility over the past two years. The first two,  The Inclusive Mindset and The Compliance Mindset, were covered earlier. The last, and perhaps the most opportunistic, is the mindset around growth.

A Growth in Consumer Awareness

While the marketing spotlight over the past ten years has been on Millennials and the ability to target them via digital marketing strategies, mainstream consumer product brands have been reaping widespread P.R. kudos as they introduce products targeting people with disabilities. Not only have fashion brands such as Tommy Hilfiger introduced adaptive clothing but a series of models with disabilities can be found strutting their stuff at the annual Runway of Dreams in Miami every year. Starbucks has introduced Aira in all coffee shops in the U.S. and Mattel brought out the Helen Keller doll just in time for Christmas. Nike, not to be left in the dust, launched the first “hands-free” athletic shoe and, earlier this year, Proctor and Gamble announced Degree Adaptive, the world’s first adaptive deodorant. At the same time new research has emerged about Baby Boomers, those often mocked know-it-alls whose relevance has receded in recent years, who are now making a comeback when a special issue of U.S. News and World Report revealed that they control 58% of all the disposable income in the U.S. 

And when marketers dig a little deeper they will find a report in Health Today that reveals that 40% of boomers self-identify as having a disability after they turn 65. According to AARP 58% plan to travel—even in 2021. According to the Open Doors/Harris Study for 2020, 12.5 million disabled Americans traveled in 2018-2019 season and when you add that to the 30.9 million boomers who will age into a disability you have a disabled travel market that will triple to 53 million over the next eight years. Destination marketers, who often function as the “canary in the coal mine,” are responsible for recognizing patterns and demographic shifts that will affect their members and stakeholders in future years, now have a solid business case for proactively growing their accessibility initiatives.

The Business Case in a Nutshell

If we are accessible for people who are disabled today, we will be ready for the surge of Baby Boomers who will be aging into a disability tomorrow, which has been one of the motivating factors in TravelAbility’s outreach to educate the travel industry. 

Meanwhile, a new genre of travel agent has been gradually emerging: The disability travel specialist, of which we have identified 38 professionals in this field.  Since they have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients, they conduct site visits and fam tours to inspect the real-time accessibility of the hotels and attractions they recommend. While most hotels built in the past 31 years believe they are within compliance regulations, travel agents have discovered there are nuanced infractions that make travel unpleasant for their clients. Meet Laurent Roffe, who with his wife Antje, owns Tapooz Travel a travel organization that specializes in accessible experiential vacations.

He’s developed a Hotel Manager Accessibility Kit comprised of 14 items—almost all of which can be purchased on Amazon for under $50 that can McGyver any hotel sleeping room or bathroom in a way that can accommodate most wheelchair users.  

Over the past two years, we’ve come to realize that TravelAbility functions as the bridge between the disability community and the travel industry to close the gaps between what’s available and what’s needed. For many small and mid-size destinations that do not have iconic attractions, they need to find their own Grand Canyon and accessibility can be just the differentiator that will help them grow.