The age inversion overtaking many developed countries is playing out this way in Israel right now as the hospitality industry there foolishly fails to take note of the trend. Locked into a "compliance mentality" where the only motivation to accommodate travelers with disabilities is in response to legal mandate, they consider travelers with disabilities as a cost center rather than a growth market:
As Israel braces itself for what the Tourism Ministry predicts will be the biggest summer for tourism in the state's 60-year history, activists for disabled rights are expressing anger over the lack of hotel facilities for those with special needs."There is such apathy here," Miami resident and regular visitor to Israel Michael Zwebner told The Jerusalem Post this week. "It's really surprising that the laws [on disabled access] are not taken seriously and there is no enforcement as such." *
The argument goes (with no awareness of its Alice-in-Wonderland quality of topsy-turvy logic):
"We checked out the demand for these types of rooms and saw that requests are very low," [Shmuel Zurel, director-general of the Israel Hotels Association] said. "It's difficult for hotels to rent out such rooms to a person who doesn't have disabilities." *
And why is the demand low? Simple. They didn't build it so we didn't come.
And who is "we"? Partly it is the 42 million Americans who spend $13.6 billion annually on travel.
And why are these "special" rooms difficult to rent out to Temporarily Able-Bodied People? Because they were not built using Universal Design. They are merely made accessible - and that as an afterthought. The rooms are stigmatized as is the very language used. People with disabilities are not "special." They are customers. And they are going elsewhere.
Source:
Disabled tourists to find 'unfriendly' hotels