"I’ve been in the industry 20 years and used to be an agent. If someone with a disability came in, we used to run a mile," Wendy Takman TTGLive March 12th 2009
Now a training consultant for Good Access Guide, which provides access and disability-related training, marketing and consultancy services to the leisure and hospitality industry, Takman says little improvement has been made since she was selling holidays.
"It’s a sector that’s neglected across the board. There’s still a lack of training and knowledge because it’s undervalued as a target market," she says.TTGLive March 12th 2009
February 22nd 2010; a new study carried out by Co-operative Travel with the assistance of TourismforAll a British-based charity that specialises in travel for the disabled, found that 85 per cent of respondents did not believe travel agents understand the needs of disabled travellers, and 78 per cent did not feel they were catered for by high street agents. The survey also found that 35 per cent would not consider booking with a mainstream travel agent.
And 2011, has the situation improved? From my own experience I can say the answer is no, the situation has not altered much which is surprising when one considers this is a multi-billion dollar market.
There is however a clearly identifiable cause and effect situation at play, namely highly fragmented sources of reliable and accurate information that is available to travel professionals. Poor information leads to customers having expectations built that they are to experience an 'accessible' holiday (airport transfer, shore excursion etc) only to find the information used by the travel professional was flawed and 'accessibility' was not available. A very common experience on both sides of the sales equation.
So whats the solution? What are travel professionals lacking? What do they need to satisfy private, agency and corporate clients looking for accessible facilities? Comments welcome.
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