Mixed Review of NZ Efforts: Getting Inclusion in Tourism Upside Down Downunder

Always alert to developments in travel with a disability Sandra Rhodda of Access Tourism NZ has noted both the promise and the missed opportunity of a new study in New Zealand, Domestic Tourism Market Segmentation  Stage 2:

In a first, a new New Zealand Ministry of Tourism report, in recognizing that that Baby Boomers are New Zealand's largest domestic market segment, has also recognized the role that disability may play in travel by this group. .. 

To our knowledge, the first mention of the fact that "travellers in the older age groups will become even more significant in the future" occurred in the Ministry's International Visitors Tourism Sector Profile, in June 2009, so it is good to see that this research supports the importance of the older market.  

The report goes on to state that the "major barriers to travel (for this segment) are health or disability (their own or that of a travelling companion) as well as a lack of travelling companions" (page 30).  In this way, the report reinforces the idea that it is a person's disability that is a barrier, rather than  environments such as inaccessible transport and accommodation that are disabling, and which therefore reduce tourism and travel opportunities for people with disabilities.