The following article on Inclusive Destination Development in Dubai was submitted to WheelMeOn.org.
Dubai Desert a Far Cry from a Cruise Ship but Seems to Get the Message
by Scott Rains
Dubai knows what travelers with disabilities need. It also knows what they want and builds it. If that is not unusual enough for a travel destination, consider this. Dubai makes a point of letting the world know that it wants tourists with disabilities.
In April 1999 Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed announced his bold vision “for Dubai to be the world’s finest hub for finance, business, and tourism.” In 2003 the vision was elaborated with the announcement of plans for Dubailand – a massive commerce, recreation, and tourism center. And this year, 2005, Dubai revealed a public goal of attracting 3 million travelers with disabilities to what it intends to be its fully inclusive tourism infrastructure. Dubailand is a major project designed to meet that goal.
Dubailand is slated as a 2 billion sq.ft project composed of 45 mega projects and 200 sub-projects. The first phase will open in 2007 with the entire project completed between 2015 and 2018. Dubailand is predicted to attract 15 million tourists to Dubai by the year 2010. The project’s six themed elements include:
"Tourism For All" (“Turismus Para Todos”) is the phrase, with historical roots in European campaigns for human rights, being used in the Middle East to mean Inclusive Tourism. Dubai’s unique leadership role in the region was evident at the First International Tourism Development Forum for People with Special Needs in the Middle East that took place during Arabian Travel Mart 2005.
Organisers cited figures estimating that the Arab world has about 30 million disabled people, mostly victims of traffic accidents, health problems and old age. They felt that the value of missed opportunities lost by Arab tourism reaches $3 billion a year – if only 10%, i.e. 3 million spent approximately $1,000 per person on travel, the total spending would create tens of thousands of jobs.
There is an important lesson to be drawn from this market-savvy logic. What began as a human and civil rights campaign in one part of the world is taking root as an economic reality in a part of the world where there are no civil rights equivalents of an Anti-Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act, or Americans with Disabilities Act. While consultants advise travel & hospitality industry executives to stonewall – or even challenge in court – disability-friendly legislation in the name of risk management, other countries embrace seniors, slow walkers, wheelchair users, those who are blind, and other demographic groups as their competitive advantage.
According to a report compiled by the World Bank, disabled people represent 10-20% of the total population in each country, or about 610 million worldwide. This number is expected to rise due to wars, poverty, insufficient health care, low birth rates and increasing senility. The report pointed out that the number of people with special needs is estimated at 40 million in Europe, over 54 million in US and 11 million in Russia.
No tourist destination in the world – on land or on the sea - can adopt a complacent “build it and they will come attitude.” Universal Design in the built environment must be complimented by what Australian Peter Rice refers to as its natural consequence, “Universal Management.” Current European visitors to Dubai sometimes comment that the marketplace atmosphere threatens to reduce every experience to a transaction and every visitor to a consumer. Customer service that does not deliver the dignity of persons enshrined in civil rights legislation will leave even the most disabled-friendly architecture feeling sterile.
This element compliments the message delivered by architect Yasmin Mahmoudieh at Arabian Travel Mart 2005 when she said:
…there can be 'no shortcuts' when it comes to designing hotels for the disabled. Architects have to focus "more on the emotional factor and atmosphere" and involve a lot of research for suitable materials, lighting and colours. She said such hotels have to have proper furniture and also cater to the fact that many people with special needs travel with families who use the normal [sic] facilities.
Ms Mahoudieh has received awards for designing of a number of disabled-friendly hotels in Switzerland, Germany and throughout Europe. She promises a 'spectacular project' in Dubai.
The very fact that Dubai get the message on Inclusive Destination Development – that consumers with disabilities expect quality and are willing to pay for it – is spectacular enough for the time being. Just wait until 2007!
Where will you go for vacation that year? On a cruise ship built around the same old inaccessible plans rejected by the US Supreme Court or somewhere that is being custom-built just for you?
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Sources:
Dubai Makes a Move Toward Inclusion
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000529.html
Why Dubai?
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000531.html
DubaiLand: But will it be UD?
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000492.html
Dubai, the United Arab Emirates
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/000462.html
Further Reading:
Accessible Cruises, Fair Housing, and the Americans With Disabilities Act
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/116434
Theme Parks, Imaginary Worlds, and Real Access
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/112537
Inclusive Tourism: Some Definitions
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/114773
Getting the Design Right - Inclusive Destination Development
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/travel_with_disabilities/115176
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Dr. Scott Rains is editor of the web site on travel and disability The Rolling Rains Report (http://www.RollingRains.com)
This month he is completing a one year appointment as Resident Scholar at the Center for Cultural Studies of UC Santa Cruz and has joined the Advisory Board of People with Disabilities Broadcasting Corporation (PWDBC), a production company "for, by, and about people with disabilities...and everybody else."
inclusive destination development