“INCLUSION IS EXPERIENTIAL AND EMOTIONAL. IT’S NOT THE DIMENSIONS OF A BATHROOM FLOOR.” ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE TRAVEL EXPERT, RICHARD THOMPSON AND THE TEAM AT INCLU SOLUTIONS ARE HELPING TRAVEL BUSINESSES TO EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED BY 1.2 BILLION DISABLED PEOPLE AND THOSE WHO WOULD TRAVEL WITH THEM, (REPRESENTING AN ANNUAL GLOBAL SPENDING POWER OF $8 TRILLION) THROUGH A MEASURABLE, SOLUTION-BASED ACCREDITATION THAT FACILITATES EDUCATION AND BEST PRACTICE WHEN IT COMES TO TRULY INCLUSIVE TRAVEL EXPERIENCES.

Richard Thompson and the team at Inclu Solutions have spent the past 18 months engaging with, enlightening, educating and upskilling the global travel supply chain – from hospitality to DMCs and tourist offices - in the art of inclusion. They are also launching the industry’s first ‘Committed to care. For everyone’ accreditation to address customer-inclusion, rather than simply focussing on the boardroom and the workforce.

We spoke to Richard about Inclu Solutions and its core mission: defining the future of travel, leisure and hospitality for anyone and everyone that seeks it, charting a course and delivering solutions to the global supply chain that will empower and enable it to realise the potential that one billion disabled people with $8 trillion spending power represents.

What is your background in the travel industry?

I entered the travel industry during the heady 1970’s as one of the first holiday reps in the youth market. This, the first generation of young people to holiday without their parents and in great need of careful and ‘creative management’ in resort (my previous psychiatric nurse training an extremely valuable and welcomed asset!). So much of the activity that holidaymakers now take for granted was totally innovative when we introduced it and I learned so much about client behaviours in the travel and tourism environment. And this has shaped many of the business actions and decisions I have made ever since.

Further to the youth market, I was involved with education travel and the ski market. It was whilst working in the French Alps that I sustained a spinal cord injury – breaking my neck in a car accident and this event transformed not only my personal lifestyle but also my trajectory within the industry. In 1997 I set up the specialist tour operator Accessible Travel and gave it that name to redefine travel in terms of accessibility and not disability. To a large degree that worked and it has become commonly known as the ‘accessible travel’ market. But having grown that business and see it racked by mainstream high travel agents, I began to see that the ‘specialist’ model just doesn’t work in terms of being scaleable. The simple reason being that the vast majority of disabled do not wish to be treated as ‘special’. They simply want to travel and have their dreams and ambitions realised in a manner that non-disabled take for granted. They absolutely don’t want a wheelchair symbol on their baggage! So the very act of marketing directly to disabled people is counter-productive. The key is to market to everyone. Because everyone knows someone who is disabled and crucially any specialisation should focus on the destination.. not the disability. That’s a complex concept for many in the arena which is why most of the so called specialists are essentially the same size as they were 20 years ago. So the future lies in ‘where do you want to go’ and not ‘what’s your disability’ and mastering the art of meeting disability requirements rather than trading on them.

Could you tell us about Inclu Solutions and what you offer?

I have learned over more than two decades at the forefront of removing barriers for disabled travellers, that the issue is not desire, aspiration or financial resources that prohibits the growth and development of the market but the lack of understanding that would enable the industry to efficiently service and facilitate enquires from disabled people, however complex their requirements might be and wherever in the world they may wish to travel. And for too long I have used the narrative of accessibility to gain traction and motivate suppliers but to be frank, that failed. Because the only signIficant changes in the past few decades has been driven by legislation and not the ambition of the industry to level up the landscape of opportunities for disabled travellers. And because these changes are almost exclusively to the built environment, by default the focus shifts exclusively to wheelchairs and fails to consider the 93% of disabled people who do not use wheelchairs. So the ‘accessible’ conversation is easy to bat away as it’s been a tick box exercise. But the reality is that you can have the most accessible hotel in the world and it has little impact on the actual guest experience if disabled kids can’t go the the kids club, mobility restricted can’t get into the pool, onto the beach or into the sea. Can’t see themselves in the bathroom mirror, or be alerted in a fire. Or read the restaurant menu or see over the hotel Reception. So the accessible imperative is wrong. The true north is inclusion. And that narrative is having an impact in the industry way beyond anything I have experienced on the accessible ticket. Quite simply because it cannot easily be deflected. Inclusion is experiential and emotional. It’s not the dimensions of a bathroom floor.

So attention secured, what the industry does not need is another ‘you should do this’ lecture. What they do need is a route map that takes them from where they are now to where they can and should be and crucially the tools and solutions to get them there. This is the genesis of Inclu Solutions. Our team of ‘Solutionists’ are leaders in their field and collectively can deliver the ‘total-inclusion’ solution. Band-aids just don’t work.

Could you tell us about the accreditation you’re launching and how our members can find out more?

Inclucare Verified is aimed at any service provider in the travel and hospitality industry who wishes to embrace the opportunity presented by 1.2 billion disabled people and those who would travel with them, representing an annual global spending power of $8 trillion. Definitely not a ‘niche’ market.

And I am a great believer in ‘what gets measured, gets done’. So what better than an organisation being able measure their own performance and take actions that enable them to strive for excellence – establishing, almost certainly for the first time in their sector, best practice. So Inclucare Verified is designed to guide and direct organisations towards creating a total customer-inclusion culture and make a genuine commitment to care. For everyone. This means the complete deck of solutions that are needed to take an organisation from their current stand-point to understanding and servicing the requirements of every guest - whatever their physical, sensory, cognitive or learning requirement might be. With a dedicated dashboard showing just where an organisation is on the ‘journey’, they will have the power and control to ‘push the dial’ by implementing a programme of ongoing adjustment that might include changes to their built environment, introduction of adaptive technologies and crucially, learning and training for everyone – boardroom, management and customer-facing personnel. Achieving care milestones through to the ultimate Inclucare Platinum accreditation and what will be seen as the kite mark of inclusion excellence.

Any member can of course contact us for more details about how to engage with and pursue Inclucare Verified accreditation. Simply email us on inclucare@inclu.uk

What would you say to a travel industry expert wanting to be more inclusive, but frightened of being discriminatory or simply doing the wrong thing?

I would say invest in getting rid of the fear. And soon. Because doing nothing or not doing it right can in themselves be discriminatory. So right now our industry could be taken to task on many elements of its delivery under existing equality legislation. It is only because consumers are not aware of their rights that this has not already happened. In the USA it has and it’s causing havoc. But if we approach this from a customer-experience perspective and create an environment of inclusivity, for everyone, legislation ceases to be an issue as we will almost certainly exceed the obligations it places on service providers.

The fear comes from lack of understanding and awareness and seeing the customer’s disability as the problem. That’s the ‘medical’ model. Service providers should adopt the ‘social’ model of disability. This sees the problem as the barriers – physical, attitudinal and procedural that the travel and hospitality industries put in the way of disabled people and not their disability or condition.

So until we remove the fear we cannot begin to adjust the way we do things. And that is a leadership issue. It starts in the boardroom and recognises that genuine inclusion is cultural. It cannot lie on one person’s desk. That just doesn’t work. So every member of an organisation needs to be part of the ‘total-inclusion solution’ and become ambassadors for inclusivity. Constantly and consistently identifying barriers that exist under their remit and removing them wherever possible. This means training. For everyone. From the moment of induction and as a crucial element of ongoing professional development. Removing the disability-fear is in itself empowering, impacting positively across an organisation. And ultimately the bottom-line as brand-loyalty increases – if a person finds a service that meets their requirement, they will tell 10 other people. Disabled people will tell 50! Incentive enough to invest inclusion? I think so.

Are there any resources you can direct our members to help them broaden their understanding of accessible travel?

There is no end of ‘information’ out there. Just Google ‘accessible travel’.

But without context or an inclusion consciousness or strategy, it is largely a meaningless set of words. What would organisations or individuals do with that information unless the fundamentals of fear and long-held, lingering myths and misconceptions about disability are neutralised? And of course, the trade press has been lauding the ‘potential’ of the disability/accessible travel market for years but without providing or directing service providers towards any real and impactful solutions - largely because they haven’t really existed. Until now. So as long as this is framed as ‘accessible travel’ the industry will continue along a track that ticks boxes driven be legislation and focus primarily on the built environment and by default, wheelchairs. Having very little impact on the actual customer experience.

Are there any properties or destinations you see as leading the field for accessibility to the disabled traveler?

Any airline, hotel, cruise line, restaurant, transport operator or service provider can, on any day, at any moment, practice total-inclusion. But this is largely down to individuals manifesting a level of awareness, understanding and care, for everyone. Rather than any corporate policy or culture. Instinctive or learned these behaviours and actions can elevate the status of the service provider with the service user and crucially, those that witness that care. However, and for common reasons, there are very few brands or organisations that deliver a consistent and visible level of care, to everyone. Primarily this is because ‘responsibility’ for customer-inclusion resides on the desk of an individual/s. The go-to person when there is an issue, which normally means it is too late and has already become a damage-limitation exercise. To establish brand loyalty across the arena, consistency is key. And this can only be established by empowering everyone in an organisation to become part of the solution. Anything else just a band-aid solution that will see any pool of understanding dissipate or disappear as those with the ‘knowledge’ leave or change roles – and ours is an industry with real career mobility and opportunity for advancement.

So, a sad reality is that disabled travellers, today, embarking on any journey, will do so expecting a kaleidoscope of experiences and interactions. Many that raise genuine worries and concerns that non-disabled simply do not need to factor. That is unfair and in many cases, discriminatory. And it also means the the most important influence on a persons ‘buying psychology’ – confidence, remains extremely low. If our industry is to realise the full potential of this market, it needs to move quickly, with purpose and a clear vision to provide that confidence. Otherwise, the market will remain, for all time, exactly how it is currently viewed – niche. It doesn’t have to be this way. It is, in reality, the last major untapped market in travel.

What advice would you give your younger self, using the benefit of your years of experience, about how to travel the world as a disabled traveller?

Don’t. Just travel as a traveller. Because it is the barriers that society and the travel and hospitality put in our way that disables us. Not our condition. The moral, ethical, commercial and legal obligations lie with the service providers not the ‘disabled traveller’. Of course we take care of our personal requirements because we have to. To stay well. To stay alive. But you change your behaviours, travel industry. Don’t ask us to. That’s how it’s always been and that’s why we are where we were as my younger self.. and to an enormous degree, where we still are today.

For more information on IncluSolutions, please visit inclu.solutions

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