1. Examining the Impact of Disability Legislation on Global Tourism
Drexel University, Marketing Department
Elizabeth Savage, Mentored by Dr. Rolph Anderson
Acknowledgements
References
Abstract!
Methods!
Data/Results Conclusion
Future Work
Domestic and global tourism provide a substantial impact on the economies of most
countries that recognize the benefits of welcoming out-of-town visitors. An aspect of
tourism that’s often overlooked is the accessibility of the destination for disabled
travelers, including vital accessibility information necessary for decision making for this
market segment. It is estimated that 15-20% of the world’s population has a disability,
and profits generated from disabled tourists could be multiplied because this segment
commonly travels with a larger group of people than non-disabled tourists. A list of the
top 100 vacation destinations representing 49 countries based upon the number of
international visitors was examined for this study. Specifically, we sought to link the
existence or absence of disability legislation to the availability of accessibility
information on the official visitor’s websites for each of the 100 destinations. We then
tested the accessibility of these websites in terms of their conformance with online
accessibility guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortia using the Sort-Site
evaluation tool. Disabled tourists require information regarding accessibility in order to
make travel decisions, and this information is a key component to ensuring a favorable
experience. Destinations could realize greater profitability from these travelers, but it
begins with the accessibility within the preliminary information gathering process.
I would like to give a special thank you to Alex Cohen, who was an amazing mentor
for me throughout my work and was always encouraging. I would also like to thank
Jorge Fresnda who was always willing to help with research and formatting issues.
Another thank you to Dr. Rolph Anderson, who helped get me started on this project
and who was always smiling. Finally, a thank you to the Office of Undergraduate
Research at Drexel University, who gave me the opportunity to expand my horizons
and work hands on.
The data collection process began with discussion and some initial research in order to determine
which elements were important to consider in regards to tourism and accessibility information.
After the list of 100 most visited cities was reviewed, several different categories were deemed
useful to this project. These categories included:
• city population
• disabled population of city
• percentage of city population composed of persons with disabilities (PWD)
• percentage of country’s PWD living in that city
• annual number of international visitors per year,
• percent change in international visitors (between 2012 and 2013)
• number of international tourists per year
• revenue from international visitors
• total revenue from all tourism
• average revenue per tourist
• number of hotel rooms in the city
• hotel occupancy rates
• and revenue per available hotel room.
For each of the cities, the official tourism website was visited and checked for accessibility
information, which was then recorded and the website was scanned using the Sort-Site evaluation
tool for accessibility according to the accessibility guidelines set by the World Wide Web
Consortium. Next, a major attraction’s website for each city was analyzed and scanned using the
same method.
This project will hopefully be used one day to amend current or create new
legislation that will aid in the accessibility of our country’s cities. While no
definite conclusions have been determined yet, it is hopeful that this data will
show the relationship between clear, well-enforced disability and accessibility
legislation and a city or country’s revenue from tourism receipts. The next step
in this research project will be to create a survey that will ask persons with
disabilities to explain a situation when they had an enjoyable travel experience
and other situation when they had a bad travel experience. This data will then be
analyzed using data mining and text analysis tools to determine what problems
seem to be recurrent and what attributes to a positive travel experience for a
person with a disability. Once the accessibility issues are pinpointed, this study
will move forward with a goal to improve our cities accessibility and in turn,
increase tourism receipts generated from persons with disabilities and the larger-
than-average groups that they travel with.
Analyzing the data revealed that of the 100 cities researched in this study, only
27 offered any accessibility information at all. Examples of information that can
be found on accessibility information pages includes material regarding
disability-friendly attractions, how to use public transportation with a disability,
and hotels that provide special amenities for persons with disabilities. Despite
the positive financial and social outcomes of providing this information, this
study found that 73% of the world’s most visited cities failed to provide it.
Continuation of this project will look to prove that this negligence has an impact
on a city’s profitability as a tourist destination.
Table 1: Online
Accessibility Errors"
According to the World Wide Web Consortia
accessibility guidelines, there are three tiers of
accessibility violations: A, AA, and AAA.
Criteria deemed level “A” is considered essential
in order for a website to be accessible. Standards
deemed “AA” are considered very important to
usability of a site and “AAA” criteria are
elements of a web page that add pleasure to the
experience, but aren’t necessarily essential for
one to access the site. The table to the left shows
the results of the scans ran on different cities’
official tourism site using a Sort-Site evaluation
tool. As depicted, every website has violations in
each tier, making the website inaccessible to
persons with disabilities who use screen readers.
Failure to meet these guidelines is failure to
communicate online with disabled tourists and
therefore depletes the possible revenue a city
may see.
Table 2: Most Visited Cities Tourism Data"
Of the 100 total cities researched, the above table shows results of the top 7 cities on the list and the data found about
them, which represents their success as popular tourist destinations.
Table 3: Most Visited Countries Tourism Data
Of the total forty nine countries that were studied, the table above shows the data collected for the top ten countries that
appeared most frequently on the list of most visited cities. As seen in the table, every country that has seen success from
tourism also has at least one piece of disability legislation that deals specifically with accessibility.
Buhalis, Dimitrios, and Simon Darcy, eds. Accessible Tourism: Concepts and
Issues. Bristol: Channel View, 2011. Print.
Aspects of Tourism.
Daruwalla, P. and S. Darcy (2005), "Personal and societal attitudes to disability,"
Annals of Tourism Research, 32 (3), 549-70.
Morad, T. (2007), "Tourism and disability. A review of cost-effectiveness,"
International Journal on Disability and Human
Development, 6 (3),
279-82.
Top 100 City Destinations Ranking. Euromonitor International.
Euromonitor. 27
January 2015. Web. 24 June 2015.
Some information was not readily available as disability and tourism research is still a fairly new
field. Over fifty different sources, including official tourism website, disability tourism sites, and
professionals in the accessible tourism field, were contacted in order to try to obtain estimates on
the number of disabled travelers that visit each city each year, but the data was not available.
After analyzing each city, we researched each country mentioned on the list to determine if the
countries’ legislations had an impact on a their cities’ accessibility. The list of 100 cities
represented 49 different countries. We determined that for each country, important factors to
research were:
• disabled population,
• international tourist receipts per year,
• percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) composed of direct tourism revenue,
• disability legislation(s)
• and any legislation dealing specifically with accessibility for persons with disabilities.