Accessible Accommodation Voice: Accessible tourism The right thing to do & a good business opportunity

The right thing to do & a good business opportunity

With the massive industry disruption of the last two years, you may have had time to refl ect on doing tourism diff erently.

That includes learning about new and emerging markets. One such consideration should be catering to people with disabilities. Especially if you are opening new accommodation, you are required to (with mandatory building regulations for new accommodation to have designated accessible rooms). Either way, accessible tourism is an industry sector worthy of your att ention. Remember when your att ention was focused on how to best cater to the booming Chinese travel sector? But did you know that the total accessible tourism sector demographic is equal to the total China tourism demographic? Now consider that 19 percent of our Australian population are people with disabilities. So, whether your focus is on inbound or domestic tourism, embracing this booming tourism sector will help your bott om line. Over 25 percent of Australians are over 65. Those ‘Baby Boomers’ are cashed up too, holding over 50 percent of our nation’s wealth. And while retirees may not consider themselves ‘disabled’, a hotel that is step free and off ers a shower with a seat could certainly be att ractive to them. As we age, a bung knee, a dodgy hip or a weak ankle can make or break a good holiday. Australia is fortunate to be a global leader in addressing disability funding, with the National Disability Insurance scheme (NDIS). You may frown and ask, “yeah but how is that relevant to tourism?” But it certainly is and for two reasons.

The fi rst, is that a participant of NDIS can have up to 28 days of respite funded per year. And it covers a support worker’s accommodation as well. Prior to the introduction of NDIS this Short-Term Accommodation (STA) took place in group living facilities. Now, NDIS participants can book respite at a hotel, resort, serviced apartment, or motel. Yes, they can book your accommodation!

The second reason NDIS is relevant to tourism operators, is the desperate shortage of supply of Specialise Disability Accommodation (SDA or what we know as a permanent rental). Catching up on the housing shortage will take at least fi ve years. So where do more than 28,000 people with disability stay while they wait? What is a medium-term solution? The answer is self-contained short stay accommodation. The Quest Apartment Hotels brand recognised this during COVID. In fact, an Accessible Accommodations user has been staying as a guest in a Melbourne apartment for the last 18 months. As an accommodation provider you don’t have to be an expert on NDIS to help meet this demand. Accessible Accommodation is a NDIS registered provider and can manage the bookings for you. Disability doesn’t discriminate. It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, whether it’s due to an accident or illness, that person will need to have their home modifi ed at some stage, with ramp access and an accessible bathroom being the most common requirements. Before COVID, three months was the normal time frame to book accessible accommodation to facilitate a guest’s home renovation but with the current shortage of tradies and materials this has ballooned from six to eight months. Finally, it's worth taking note that 38 percent of Accessible Accommodation’s travel bookings are for multiple rooms.

Aft er all, a guest isn’t going to be too keen on having their support worker sleep in the same room as them.

So, your adjacent (nonaccessible room) has a good chance of being booked as well.

Embracing people with disabilities, whether it’s a tourist or a person in need of accommodation is not only the right thing to do. It makes fi nancial sense. And it’s easier than you may think.

Kerry Williams

Founder, Accessible Accommodation

REI

THE TRUSTED CLOUD PMS FOR MANAGEMENT RIGHTS

700 Apartments across 5 Resorts on the Gold Coast “REI Cloud helps run my business better!”

Adam Lill

Operations Manager Coast Breakz Resort Group

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