Accessing Your Destination: Marketing to Travelers with Special Needs
Apr 15, 2017
Accessing Your Destination:Marketing to Travelers
with Special Needs
Which of these people had a disability?
https://youtu.be/n6UeFj6ceR8
1 billion people have a disability
15% of the world’s
population
IN THE USA
Not disabledDisabled
What does "accessible"
mean?
How do disabled people travel?
- They seek comfort
- The majority drive or cruise, but many fly as
well.
People with disabilities
spend about 4 billion per year on air
travel
How can destinations be
more accommodating?
Be specific!
Work with hotels to provide
accessible rooms with roll-in
showers and even hoists.
If you're a beach destination, have
beach wheelchairs and ramps to the
sand.
What to think about for your property or destination
- Talk to disabled travelers – bloggers
and writers
- Do more than the minimum that is legally required
32 miles of sugar-white sand beaches lead to the turquoise waters located in the southern-most tip of Alabama along the Gulf of Mexico
Accessible areas in Gulf Shores & Orange
Beach
Attractions
Beaches
City facilities
Nature
What I have learned - When you don’t have a family member or friend who is disabled,
travel needs for this demographic are not on your radar
- Not just wheelchair … Slow walkers (elderly, stroke victims, etc.)
- Saying your property is “handicap accessible” because you have wide doorways and a handrail in the tubs in the bathroom is NOT
acceptable
Accessible needs to = Able to enjoy like all other guests
Where Gulf Shores & Orange Beach can
improve accessibility
Our lodging mix
- 85% vacation rentals (condos and beach houses)
- Very few have units that are truly “accessible” with roll-in showers
- Adding national hotel chains
- More properties with a pool lift
Lodging
- “Hard” paths
for the elderly
and slow
mobility
Beach Access
Why become accessible?
Adults with disabilities spend 13.6 billion on travel every year.
About 25% of today's 20 year olds will become disabled before they
retire.
People travel to make memories…
People with disabilities
deserve those memories, too.