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Travel industry should cater more to tourists with disabilities
A report has been published to inform the Dutch tourism sector to treat tourists with a disability just like other tourists.
Entitled ‘Toegankelijk Toerism. Op weg naar een inclusieve reissector’ (Accessible tourism: Towards an inclusive tourism sector), the report looks at the problems people with a disability face when going on vacation. Based on a number of research projects, it recommends that the tourism industry be more inclusive and should deal with tourists with a disability just like other tourists.
The main findings of the study were presented on 17 December by Prof. dr. René van der Duim from the Cultural Geography Group of Wageningen University (WUR) at the seminar ‘Aangepaste vakanties’ in Utrecht.
With about 2.5 million people with some form of disability in
the Netherlands, the researchers concluded that it is vital that the tourism sector give more attention to this group, as well as to an increasingly greying population.
The study was commissioned by the ANR, Reiswerk, CELTH and the NBAV. It was carried out by staff members and students of Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUAS), Stenden/ETFI and WUR. Besides Prof. van der Duim, other reseachers included dr. Meghann Ormond, Joost van Heiningen and Paulina Schmitz.
Full report in Dutch can also be downloaded from this page.
Related press article.