A major initiative for Accessible tourism has begun! 2023 marks a significant milestone in the bid for Queensland to become the world’s most inclusive holiday experience for tourists from all across the globe. But why? How will they do this? How can I get involved? Don’t worry, Recite Me has got you covered – here is everything you need to know about the Year of Accessible Tourism.
With the Olympics landing in Brisbane in 2032, Queensland has made it its mission to make this the world’s most accessible and inclusive sporting event for athletes AND spectators. To do so, Queensland has created Towards Tourism 2032, a 10-year strategic plan to build, evolve and accelerate the visitor economy future. Phase 1 is the first step in this strategy, beginning with The Year of Accessible Tourism 2023.
Why is accessibility important to Queensland?
Tourism is a driving force of Queensland’s economy and directly impacts the state’s quality of jobs, services and lifestyle. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Wealthfare, Australia has a disability prevalence of 1 in 6. So, raising the profile of tourism, and making your business inclusive has not just got a positive impact on Queensland itself but the overall experience of its visitors, workers and locals alike.
However, Accessibility shouldn’t just be considered when a customer arrives at your shop’s front door, it should be contemplated throughout the entire customer journey. From the moment an individual clicks on your digital platform, their needs should be considered. In fact, let’s take a moment to look at these statistics…
- 24% of disabled travellers say they have problems with the searching, shopping, or booking processes (Amadeus )
- 53% of disabled travellers surveyed said they needed help with all or part of the booking process (Amadeus )
- Adults with disabilities spend an estimated $17.3 billion on travel every year (Travel Pulse)
- Travellers would increase their travel budget by up to 34% if accessibility barriers were eliminated. ( World Travel & Tourism )
When we take into consideration that the number of people travelling with disabilities will triple, to 33.8 million, by 2028, (Travel Weekly) It’s hard to think that persons with accessible needs would be overlooked.
So Why Does this All Matter to Me?
That’s a fantastic question! The Year of Accessible Tourism will include targeted programs that will receive $12 million in new financing that organisations can apply for. These initiatives will help the Queensland tourism industry better accommodate tourists of all abilities and create better destination experiences for all travellers in Queensland.
As a result, Queensland will be able to provide everyone with the freedom of choice and confidence to engage in tourism activities, laying a solid foundation for Brisbane 2032 to become the most inclusive and accessible athletic event in the history of the games.
There are multiple schemes where grants are available and we urge all organisations to take advantage to become more inclusive. This will help you to first help more people but also boost your brand identity and increase your customer base.
Boosting Accessibility Tourism Experiences Grant
Boosting Accessible Tourism Experiences Grants are a part of the “Accessible Tourism Infrastructure” scheme. These grants are ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 (GST excluded) and will be available for the development and/or enhancement of existing tourism infrastructure or products to create more accessible visitor experiences and improve accessibility for tourism workers.
The key objectives of the Accessible Tourism Infrastructure Scheme are to support projects that will:
- Increase the number of tourism and events businesses that are delivering exceptional and accessible customer experiences
- Have a positive impact on the community through improved accessibility to visitors.
- Support and provide opportunities to the tourism and events industry to make improvements to accessibility for visitors and workers with disabilities.
All grants will be subjected to the eligibility criteria & applications for funding will open very soon. Keep an eye on the Queensland Government website and if you need assistance with this, please contact the Recite Me team and we can guide you through the process.
How to Support Your Online Visitors
To make sure you maximise your chances of attracting and engaging with the widest diverse audience your website needs to be accessible and inclusive to everyone. But how do you do this?
The key to this is providing the necessary assistive tools for every scenario. You have to remember that The Olympics will attract audiences from across the globe and businesses will have to be considerate that not everyone’s experience will be the same. In fact, 16% of the world’s population has at least 1 (or more) significant disabilities. To put that in perspective, that averages out to about 1 in 6 people that you meet every day!
This is where Recite Me comes in, our inclusive software is designed to enable everyone to create a unique user experience. Our award-winning accessibility toolbar has supported millions of users to customise their websites in the way that suits them to unlock their full potential.
The Screen Reader
285 million people worldwide have a visual impairment, providing our screen reader will help website visitors to perceive and understand your digital content by reading aloud website text, which can be customised to suit the viewer.
Online Translation
One in ten people are native English speakers. All of your website content will be easily translated into over 100 languages using Recite Me’s web accessibility technology, which also includes 35 text-to-speech voices.
Styling and Customisation
15% of the world’s population is neurodivergent. Recite Me assistive technology allows people to change the way a website looks. Users are able to customise the website’s colour scheme as well as the text, font style, size, colour, and spacing.
Reading Aids
774 million people in the world cannot read or write, and 10% of people have a learning disability, so reading content online can be a challenge for some people. To simplify use and support your website visitors, the Recite Me web accessibility toolbar provides five main tools; a ruler, screen mask, magnifier, margins, and a dictionary.
5.4 Million Inclusive Experiences Online
Recite Me has worked with many online communities and organisations from all over the world to make the internet inclusive for everyone.
These companies have trusted in Recite Me Accessibility Technology and they are now reaping the benefits of having a digitally inclusive platform. Here are some of the statistics from 2022 alone:
- There were over 5.4 million toolbar launches
- There were over 34.4 million web pages made inclusive of the Recite Me toolbar
- Over 5000 of our client’s websites were made accessible.
Just look at those numbers! Whilst this might be impressive, Recite Me understands the importance of showing results from a sector that is specific to YOU. Don’t worry, Recite Me’s FREE 2022 Accessibility Report separates all our data into each sector so you can see the numbers that matter to you the most.
Organisations making a difference to help disabled people online
Don’t let us do all the talking, check out what our clients have said about our software:
“As a group, we endeavour to be somewhere for everyone. This starts with guests locating us online and having full accessibility to our websites to make informed decisions on where they should stay, right through to fully accessible inns and all of the help they should require throughout their stay.”“As a group, we endeavour to be somewhere for everyone. This starts with guests locating us online and having full accessibility to our websites to make informed decisions on where they should stay, right through to fully accessible inns and all of the help they should require throughout their stay.”
Dan Evans, General Manager, The Inn Collection Group
“At BWH Hotel Group Great Britain we are committed to making travel accessible to everyone. Recite Me supports guests in finding and booking independently owned hotels across Great Britain. “At BWH Hotel Group Great Britain we are committed to making travel accessible to everyone. Recite Me supports guests in finding and booking independently owned hotels across Great Britain.
“To aid Recite Me, we have also added extra functionality to our website. This allows guests to be able to filter hotels by specific accessibility features making finding the perfect hotel even simpler.”“To aid Recite Me, we have also added extra functionality to our website. This allows guests to be able to filter hotels by specific accessibility features making finding the perfect hotel even simpler.”
Chris Bowling, Head of Digital Marketing and E-Commerce, at Best Western Hotel Group
“Gatwick Airport aims to be the UK’s most accessible airport, giving everybody an equal opportunity to fly, and as part of this, it is also important for us to make our website easy to use for as many people as possible. “The Recite Me assistive toolbar provides a great technology-based solution for us. Not only can our site be translated into hundreds of different languages, but we are also able to offer a screen reader function and a range of other accessibility tools which help make it easier for all of our passengers to access the information they need to enjoy the best journey possible through Gatwick. “
Mandie Armstrong, Digital Communications Manager, Gatwick Airport
“As a company, GWR understands how important access and inclusion are for all of our customers. And while it’s crucial to consider physical accessibility for our customers, it’s also essential to consider digital accessibility. Adding Recite Me means our website is now more accessible for the one in five people in the UK (13 million) who have a disability. It also means people who don’t speak English as their first language can now translate all the content into over 100 languages at the click of a button. Thanks to Recite Me, GWR is now confident that we are providing digital access and inclusion to all of our customers. We would definitely recommend Recite Me to anyone who wants to make their website more accessible to everyone.”
Kevin Jones, Digital Product Manager at the Great Western Railway
The year of accessible tourism is shaping up to be a fantastic year for all businesses in Queensland that are wanting to be accessible and provide the best tourist experience for their customers.
Do you want to be inclusive? Head over to our website and book a demo today
