Does anyone have any information on the worldwide (regional one also fine) accessible tourism market data? Population, market volume, unit amount per travel, growth rate, segment characteristics, etc.
It could be like the population of people with accessibility needs, the frequency of their traveling compared to that of people without accessibility needs. The distribution of income of families that have one or more family member(s) with disability compared to those of the non-disabled only families.
In order to call attention to the accessible travel market to the general public, we need market facts and insights that triggers business motivation and action. I think UNWTO or ENAT or other organizations worked on that aspect already and we somehow estimate the Japan market based on their data whether they are worldwide or regional or national. Any information would be appreciated.
9 Comments
I’m sure that @getaboutable @pieterghijsels and @Martin have some great info!
I have found these but some are old…
Hi! We’ll look into it but I would recommend MyTravelResearch report from 2018 (Carolyn Childs) for instance and the latest edition that’s coming out soon of John Morris’ research as well (2020 survey on accessible tourism):
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There’s also the Sparrowly Group paper from 2020, can be downloaded on their website I believe! “Creating real inclusion”
Hello all, thanks for the quick response. Really like an academy here.
The last one is probably this:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6004d67f3294c7562430f32a/t/600e52c6d3c69c50b9ee97b4/1611551434163/AT+PDF.pdf I will check these. Thanks.
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Josh’s and GetAboutAble’s references are already very relevant, I think. I can’t really add anything new there. But I’d like to mention two points about trying to quantify the demand of accessible tourism:
1. Every estimation depends on the chosen definition of the target market. Usually, we’ll see either demographical statistics (focussing on elderly citizens, who supposedly have a higher chance of experiencing accessibility issues, combined with a supposed higher spendable income) or official disability statistics – highly depending on national definitions of what is considered a disability. Because these figures are all hard to compare, the general agreement is to estimate the number of people in every country round 15% of the population, and to add that age is a factor that heightens the chance of experiencing function impairments or disabilities.
2. By zooming in on the accessible travel market as a minority request (especially if you start breaking down these 15% to specific categories) investments tend to be framed as ‘only’ for this ‘niche’. This usually leads away from the point that most accessibility considerations would benefit virtually every visitor, not just people with specific accessibility requirements and their travel companions.-
Thanks for the remarks, Pieter. To keep momentum of the effort to improve the level of accessible travel readiness at organizations in the travel industry, we need business cases. Otherwise it is not sustainable. To make the business case, there are two dimensions. One is to improve the readiness to welcome all diversified types of disabilities; the other one is to hone your skills and build facilities that support one specific field of accessibility market, something like a wonderful destination specially for visually impaired people. We-love-all-but-especially-you strategy. It is more and more my thought these days.
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Yes, I like the idea of good examples to share. Perhaps we should move this into a new discussion so it lasts longer (activity items get pushed down, but discussions stick around and are searchable)?
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No issue on the proposal but I am not sure how it works. Could you show me how or could you do that for me?
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Just go to the group and in the “Discussions” tab, start a new topic. We can pick up from there. Since the talk of the reports seems to be answered, maybe we can start a discussion topic on the business cases you mentioned?
