Editorial

Vancouver, B.C. April 4, 2022 – Melange Magazines and TravelAbility are thrilled to launch Accessible Journeys, a quarterly digital magazine, and resource for people with disabilities and seniors seeking travel experiences. 

The magazine offers tips and guides for travelers with disabilities and seniors to help them plan their journeys. It features niche news, information about emerging accessible products and technology, and verified information about accessible accommodations, restaurants, activities and adventures. Additional content features cover accessible travel and tourism best practices, as well as accessible destinations around the world.

Travel industry stakeholders interested in showcasing their accessible offerings to the disability travel market have been quick to jump onboard. The inaugural issue includes: The world’s first fully accessible hotel, The Schoolhouse Hotel; the first autism-certified city in the U.S., Mesa, Arizona; nudist beaches embracing inclusivity; a call for help from war-torn Ukraine’s disability population.

Perhaps most important, the magazine pays homage to the bloggers and vloggers who have brought accessible travel into the spotlight. These champions share their travel stories, insights and advice on all things travel, to ensure people with disabilities and seniors have safe, comfortable and enjoyable travel experiences.

Accessible Journeys will reach people with disabilities and Baby Boomers through multiple channels:  

• Joomag platform one the two largest digital newsstands platforms.
• TravelAbility Insider. Travel industry newsletter
• www.readmelange.com. The Mélange family of magazines boasts 1.2 million readers in 64 countries   
• Disability travel bloggers social media shares
• Travel clubs and related organizations 
• Accessible travel clubs and networks
• Disability advocacy organizations

The disability market for travel is expected to triple by 2028, and it’s a market hungry for travel. A recent ODO/Harris Poll found that 12.5 million people with disabilities traveled in 2018/2019, up from 8.5 million in 2014/2015. The aging population is adding to the number of people with disabilities daily. Baby Boomers are the fastest-growing population segment in North America and while most have the time and money to travel more than ever before, they often face physical challenges. The upward trend in travel demand for these populations is clear, and Accessible Journeys will help fill the gaps in accessibility travel information that mainstream media has largely ignored. Editor Ashley Lyn Olson sums it up with, “We are the accessible travelers, and these are our journeys. Come see the world our way, where all are welcome, where all may enter.”

The first issue of Accessible Journeys magazine is available now.

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. 

Over the course of my research, I’ve spoken with scores of people in the travel industry. I’ve often been asked about my perceptions of that destination’s tourism assets and I’ve always told them that they need to find their own Grand Canyon. For many second and third-tier destinations with attractions/assets that appeal to a niche audience, accessibility could be key to a wider audience. In this series, we’ve identified three distinct mindsets that I believe are shaping the accessible travel landscape. They are:

• The Inclusive Mindset
• The Compliance Mindset
• The New Markets Mindset

In this, the second of a three-part series, I will look at the mindset of compliance.

The Compliance Mindset

This mindset is essentially rooted in fear. Fear of getting sued, fear of complaints, fear of saying the wrong phrase that may offend someone. I find this mindset most prevalent in the hotel community whose experience includes demand letters from ambulance-chasing attorneys threatening to sue for an amount that they know would cost less to settle than to win.

A CEO of a hotel management company told the audience at TravelAbility in 2019 that they held daily staff briefings to address potential guest service issues. When a traveler with a disability registers at the hotel, the default assumption is that they are working for an opportunistic attorney trying to find something wrong. 

Additionally, there are ADA regulations that hoteliers are forced to abide by that can be costly and don’t make sense. I spoke with a regional general manager who presided over a chain of 11 hotels in a major Southeast destination, who had just built a new flagship hotel adjacent to the convention center. The architectural plans called for all accessible rooms to be located near the elevator in the same position on each floor. This would not only save plumbing costs but, he believed, would also be more convenient for disabled guests. He was told that the law required accessible rooms to be distributed evenly throughout the hotel. In his mind, this was an example of the government telling him to do something that would reduce guest convenience. No one likes to be told what to do especially when it is perceived as interfering with the customer experience.

Accessibility doesn’t need to be dauntingly difficult or expensive and new research is showing that demand for accessible accommodations is significant. Sometimes seemingly trivial gestures or amenities make an outsized impact on the perception of guests with a disability. For example, when a blind guest with a service dog checks into a hotel, providing a drinking bowl and information about relief areas can cause the guest to gush about exceptional customer service on TripAdvisor.

In our last newsletter, we shared Tapooz Travel’s list of 13 assistive products that can solve some of the most common accessibility problems in a sleeping room and a bathroom. All these products are readily available from Amazon with most of them costing under $50. Check out these accessibility products. (Note: While products primarily address mobility, this will be a living document that in the future will include products and apps for blind and hearing-impaired travelers as well as those with cognitive disabilities.)

A research report from Destination Analysts, one of the leading market intelligence firms in the tour and travel industry, revealed that 40% of American travelers now identify as having a disability or have traveled with someone in their party with a disability. The growth of baby boomers aging into a disability means that the number of travelers with a disability will increase from 12.5 million to 35 million over the next ten years and hotel owners and chains will need to provide a greater level of services and training as baby boomers control 68% of all discretionary spending. They will opt for hotels and destinations that welcome them by being accessible.