Accessible Tourism

Making your tourism business accessible not only ensures that your visitors receive the best treatment, but also opens up your business

to an ageing UK population who are looking for extra help (there are an estimated 11 million potential holiday-makers with disabilities

within the UK), as well as meeting the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

'At Your Service' - new tourism booklet on the Accessible market from VisitEngland

The most comprehensive business case for accessible tourism in England by VisitEngland. The booklet, entitled ‘At Your Service’, has been created through a joint partnership between the Government’s Accessible Tourism Stakeholder Forum and VisitEngland with the aim of inspiring tourism businesses to improve accessibility for customers in the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympic Games.

Around 11 million people in England have an impairment of some kind whether they are wheel chair users, have poor vision, hearing loss or learning difficulties. Overseas, there are potentially 78 million American and 75 million European disabled visitors, friends and family. For the first time, the real value of overnight trips in England by both UK residents and international visitors who have a health condition or impairment has been recorded. These combined figures reveal a lucrative market worth over £2 billion.

The booklet identifies small changes that are easy to implement, including an easy to follow ‘Map through access’ showing how to get started, and how to make small adjustments to facilities, provide useful information on accessibility and understand the needs of disabled people.

VisitEngland provides a number of tools and resources to help tourism operators accommodate people with access needs including the ‘At your service’ booklet, available to view and download now at www.visitengland.com/access.

VisitEngland launches new online Access Statement tool

VisitEngland has launched a new online tool to make it easier for tourism businesses to create an Access Statement. This free tool now offers bespoke guidance according to the business type and in doing so provides operators with the information they need to create a robust Access Statement.

For more information, go to http://www.visitengland.com/accessstatements 

Good access is good business - watch the new accessible tourism video from VisitEngland

Working with a broad range of tourism business, VisitEngland has produced a short video that highlights the benefits to be gained in providing access for everyone.

In the short film, ‘Profiting through Accessible Tourism’, some of England's award winning operators explain why they feel that good accessibility has broad appeal and enhances the quality of the visitor experience. Accessibility is viewed as being good for business without having to be expensive to achieve.

National Accessible Scheme

The National Accessibility Scheme for self-catering, serviced accommodation and holiday parks includes standards for hearing and

visually impaired guests in addition to standards for guests with mobility impairment.

There are four categories for mobility ('One step ahead' is the entry level grade - see below) plus an additional accolade 'access

exceptional' for those who provide the highest level, and two each for visual and hearing impairment with level 1 being the minimum entry

requirement.

For more information about the National Accessibility Scheme, please contact Quality in Tourism:

Telephone: 0845 300 6996

Email: qualityintourism@gslglobal.com

Website: www.qualityintourism.com

One Step Ahead

Help your accommodation business stay ‘One Step Ahead’ with the accessibility scheme from Visit Britain.

By 2025 more than 1/3 of the UK population will be over 55! The newest brochure from VisitBritain highlights simple improvements accommodation providers can make to give aging baby boomer tourists a little extra help.

‘One step ahead’ aims to help businesses increase their appeal to this growing group by gaining the entry-level M1 mobility standard of the National Accessiblity Scheme. The scheme has an eye-catching, distinctive logo which can be used on marketing materials and businesses with the chartermark will be searchable on a variety of official websites, including Visit Norfolk.

For a free copy of the brochure and more information about the scheme contact Quality in tourism on 0845 300 6996 or email qualityintourism@gsglobal.com. The brochure is also downloadable on www.visitengland.com/onestepahead.  

You can also find out more information on Accessible Tourism at Enjoy England's pages www.visitengland.com/access, including downloading their 'Easy Does It' brochure.

DCMS - Accessible tourism: Making it work for your business

DCMS has launched "Accessible tourism: Making it work for your business" on behalf of the Accessible Tourism Stakeholder Forum for the 2012 Games. It sets out the business case for accessible tourism and the economic potential in providing better services and encouraging more tourism from disabled people.

With nearly 1 in 5 people in England with a disability, making changes to essential for not only your customers, but for the future of your business.

For more information, please visit the DCMS website to download the Accessible Tourism documents.