MEDIA RELEASE

National Results

of a

Survey Into the Barriers Confronted

By Tourists With Disabilities - When

Making Travel Arrangements, Finding Accommodation

And Visiting Tourist Venues

A national survey of the barriers confronted by tourists with disabilities when making travel arrangements, finding accommodation and visiting tourist venues has highlighted the difficulties which tourists with disabilities confront when making arrangements to take a holiday, compared to tourists who do not have the need for accessible facilities.

The survey confirms that the number of accessible hotels/motels and other tourist facilities in Australia is low, making holidays for tourists with disabilities difficult and time-consuming to arrange.

The survey of 1307 people across all disabilities identified many factors which made their holidays less enjoyable, amongst these were:

  • 42.7% of tourists with a physical disability had difficulty in finding suitable accessible accommodation            

  • 36% of tourists with a physical disability found that hotels/motels displayed the international symbol for        access, but the accommodation was not wheelchair accessible.

  • 80% of tourists with a vision impairment highlighted a lack of audio display in hotels/motels and tourist venues such as museums.

  • 86.7% of tourists with a vision impairment highlighted the lack of Braille and/or tactile signage in hotels/motels and tourist venues.

  • 100% of tourists with a hearing impairment highlighted the fact that there were no visual alarms for emergency egress in hotels/motels or tourist venues.

  • 100% of tourists with a hearing impairment highlighted the fact that, (especially in cases of emergency egress), airports did not provide visual information to compliment their public address announcement.

  • 18.7% of tourists who took their mobility aids on a flight with them, found it was damaged on arrival at their destination. A number of those same tourists reported that their mobility aids had been damaged more than once.

Result:

Many tourists with disabilities are discriminated against in accommodation and tourist facilities because of the lack of accessibility in and to these venues.

The National Survey contains statistics of the barriers confronted by tourists across all disabilities, together with a table of participant’s experiences in relation to their holidays. 

A  copy of the survey  can be viewed by clicking on the following link

  National Holiday Survey

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