People with disabilities have, as citizens, the same rights, expectations, and aspirations as anyone else, and far from backing down in the face of the impossibility of traveling, they want to be customers who can openly enjoy tourism offerings as a matter of course, without having to choose their destination and lodging from a limited selection, in terms of both quality and quantity, or pay a higher price due to infrastructure limitations—all of which are caused by a lack of resources.
Accessibility to hotel accommodations continues to pose challenges due to the unreliability of available information, a lack of awareness, and lax regulations. Today, efforts are still underway to ensure that many sectors—not just the hotel industry—are accessible to everyone. To get off on the right foot, it is necessary to conduct an analysis of the current state of accessibility, since hotels are the most representative and significant subsector within the tourism industry and must therefore meet these types of needs.
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Accessibility Goals for Hotels
The goals are as follows:
- Improving the lives of people with disabilities.
- Commitment to addressing suggestions for improvement provided by all users with disabilities.
- To be of service to people with disabilities who want to enjoy tourism and leisure activities.
- Accessibility from a physical, visual, and auditory standpoint.
- Accommodation areas (reception, guest rooms, restaurants, etc.) equipped with specific features such as signage and accessible elevators.
- Integrating accessibility into the hotel’s management system through an implementation and improvement plan.
- Improving compliance with the law.
How to Implement Accessibility in Hotels?
To implement accessibility in hotel management, you need:
- A unified, consistent, and coordinated approach that must reach all employees, regardless of their employment status.
- A culture of accessibility in hotel companies that endures and improves over time.
- View this decision as an investment in the future.
- Preventing barriers.
- Specific training for employees so they can treat arriving guests with courtesy and handle interactions with the necessary ease.
Accessibility as a Synonym for Hotel Quality
Given tourism’s potential to drive economic development, it stands to reason that this potential is further strengthened by incorporating the demand for goods and services from tourists with disabilities. Urban infrastructure planning fundamentally involves adapting facilities for use by all people; the concept of accessibility entails providing improved information about tourism products that incorporate accessibility, particularly the personalized service offered to them. This entails higher quality standards, which will be appreciated by all those who seek tourism services. Based on this, the aim is to establish the need to advance planning for tourism and the hospitality industry by taking into account the demand for accessible tourism and adapting the supply to meet these requirements—as a key factor in achieving sustainable development in the sector.
Accommodation services and their accessibility standards are a fundamental element in the concept of accessible tourism and have a positive impact on potential customers’ perception of the quality of tourism services, not only those with disabilities but also consumers in general, who expect a service that maximizes their enjoyment.
The Need for Studies on Accessible Tourism
Finally, it is considered important to take into account the specific needs of those who participate in accessible tourism as a key factor in achieving sustainable development in this sector. Therefore, it is important, when studying accessible tourism, to focus our efforts on analyzing the segment of people with physical disabilities—not only because of the large number of users in this group and their growing participation in the tourism market, but also because of its future growth potential, which has led us to view it as a business opportunity for the tourism sector.
