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With millions of people in need of accessible travel options, and with our Baby Boomers (almost 25% of our population) starting to reach retirement age as well now is
time to start thinking about improving marketing efforts to include people with disabilities and about better overall accessibility in general. By educating business owners on benefits of marketing to people with disabilities and educating travel agents who are fighting a losing battle with internet, we can begin to focus on this new target market.
If you want to take advantage of rapidly growing adaptive travel market, get started now! I recommend hiring an expert to get your business rated and start removing barriers to access as soon as possible. Think about accessibility anytime you’re planning a remodel or addition. These improvements will benefit everyone, not just people with disabilities. For those of you who have already taken steps to improve accessibility, start bragging about it.
Craig Kennedy is a published adaptive travel author, accessibility consultant, and motivational speaker with almost ten years of adaptive travel experience and more than 15 years of tourism and service industry expertise. He specializes in resort business growth and customer attraction through better overall accessibility, education, and marketing, and works with businesses who wish to become leaders in accessible travel and accommodation.
Craig P. Kennedy, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, CK Consulting: Setting Standards for Accessibility www.CKConsultingonline.com. * Please visit our Web site to take a FREE accessibility quiz to find out if you are on right track.
Craig was born and raised in upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains. He grew up an avid skier with a love for all kinds of outdoor activities such as rock climbing, camping, and fishing. After college, Craig moved to Colorado where a skiing accident in his second season left him paralyzed. He is still an avid skier, hitting the slopes more than eighty days per season, and spends the rest of his time bicycling, camping and traveling.
