News Story

Local firms urged to seize Olympics opportunities

3/12/2010

Peter Hodgson, right, corporate director at Norton Radstock College, and current president of the European Forum of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (EfVET), welcomes Jenifer Littman MBE, chief executive of Tourism for All, to an accessibility awareness workshop held by the College at the Centurion Hotel in Midsomer Norton.

Tourist businesses and visitor attractions in the area are being urged to seize the major opportunities presented by the London 2012 Olympic Games and the training of the GB Paralympics team in Bath.

Jenifer Littman MBE, chief executive of Tourism for All, told an accessibility awareness workshop organised by Norton Radstock College that the Games provided an incentive for businesses and organisations to prepare themselves for the growing numbers of people with disabilities and infirmities who were travelling today.

She said: "The Games represent the best opportunity this country has ever had to create a legacy of accessibility.You can't afford to ignore accessible tourism. The UK's disabled market is a substantial one. It is estimated that there are 10 million disabled people in Britain, with a combined annual spending power of £80 billion a year.In addition, we have a population that is living longer. With age comes a higher propensity for disability. Yet the over 50s buy 40 per cent more holidays than the under 30s, and they average five or six breaks a year."

In Europe, she said, there were 127 million disabled people with a combined spend of 166 billion euros a year. Surveys had shown that 120 million more of these people would travel more if they were confident of finding the right facilities.

Visitors from the US, where 20 per cent of the population had some from of disability, had high expectations of accessibility.

She cited the example of the Scandic Hotels group in northern Europe, which placed clips for walking sticks at its reception desks so customers' walking sticks would not fall to the floor. The clips were comparatively cheap, but the resultant positive customer response was huge, building customer loyalty and resulting in repeat business.

Jenifer Littman's address formed part of an accessibility workshop, which marked the start of a free three-month pilot training course at Norton Radstock College for a European project known as TACTALL. The project involves partners in the UK, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Hungary and Italy, with Marny Thompson at Norton Radstock College as the project's UK co-ordinator.

Anyone seeking more details should contact Marny Thompson on 01761 418634, or email marny.thompson@nortcoll.ac.uk

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