Tap into the £2bn accessible tourism market

The tourism potential of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has long been acknowledged, but there is one type of visitor that may not spring to mind immediately: disabled guests. Whether they are there to visit the Olympic Games or the Paralympic Games (or both), they represent an additional market to be tapped.

Should London perform sparklingly well in 2012 in terms of offering accessible accommodation to disabled guests, it is highly likely that more will be attracted to London as a result in the future – and when the market is currently worth over £2 billion, there is a lot of incentive to ensure that supply meets the potential demand.

There are currently 1,540 hotels and Bed and Breakfasts on the Inclusive London website – launched in March this year to promote accessible rooms in the city – as well as 122 accessible hostels.

By the time the Olympic and Paralympic Games come about, there should be 2,667 accessible rooms in the London, with 1,392 of those wheelchair-friendly, according to the official promotion agency for the capital, London & Partners. But this is far from sufficient to meet demand with a potential market estimated at 78 million American and 75 million European disabled visitors.

There are plans by several hotel chains to ramp up developments even further – Premier Inn plans to open another four properties for the Games, for instance – but the potential for further rooms to be made accessible remains. But making an accommodation accessible is only part of the story. Ross Calladine, VisitEngland's Skills, Welcome and Accessibility Manager emphasises that "for accommodation businesses to improve accessibility, they need to not only think about their facilities but their customer service/disability awareness and information provision."

• At Your Service: understand the business case for improving accessibility with this handy 14-page booklet explaining how improving accessibility can benefit your bottom line, which can be found at www.visitengland.org/access.
• Access Statements: create your own access statement using VisitEngland’s free, new and improved online tool. An access statement is a clear and honest description of the facilities and services you offer and contains invaluable information for customers with accessibility needs.
• A new video in the Profiting through Accessible Tourism series is now available.
• Easy Does it: find no-cost business improvements you can action in the next 30 days at www.visitengland.com/easydoesit.
• Customer service training: banish the fear factor and gain disability confidence through training. More information can be found at www.visitengland.org/access