March 5, 2004
Disabled tourists: Rich Source of Revenue?
Bob Mervine
Staff Writer
ORLANDO -- When Murray Krasnoff visits a business, he sometimes brings along
a blindfold, earplugs and wheelchair, the better to show clients the problems
facing travelers with disabilities.
"You learn to hate carpet real quickly in a wheelchair," Krasnoff
says. "It's like quicksand."
Krasnoff founded Orlando-based Suntastic Tours International in 1990 to cater
to travelers who need special attention, including those with disabilities.
"There are a lot of things that businesses can do in this area that don't
cost money," he says. And the investment can bring huge returns.
Travelers with disabilities spent $13.6 billion in 2002 -- but say they would
have spent $27 billion if hotels, airlines, theme parks and restaurants could
better accommodate their needs. That startling statistic says a lot about a
rapidly growing niche market for travel and how businesses can accommodate them.
Jay Cardinali, Walt Disney World's manager of services for guests with disabilities,
confirms there's been an increase in the number of disabled guests in recent
years, but declines to be more specific. "We don't track the numbers of
our disabled guests," he says.
However, "Walt Disney World is the No. 1 company for travelers, disabled
or not," says Cheryl Duke. Cheryl Duke and
her husband, Bill, founded W.C. Duke Associates
in 1988. The Virginia-based consulting firm operates Opening Door, a program
that works with Suntastic Tours and produces about 60 sessions a year that help
businesses improve the experiences of disabled travelers.
It is a labor of love: Cheryl Duke has degenerative
rheumatoid arthritis, her husband has a hearing disability, and son Paul has
Duchenne muscular dystrophy. which requires a 400-pound wheelchair and breathing
ventilator.
"Disney sometimes gets criticized," she says, "but it's because
they have raised the bar for disabled travel so much that people's expectations
are so much higher."
In fact, Cardinali says some disabled guests make no advance plans when they
visit. "They just show up," he says. "They say, 'Hey it's Disney.
They'll handle things."
To a significant degree, they do. Among the amenities Walt Disney World offers
are Braille guidebooks and a pre-recorded audio guide for people with visual
disabilities. In theaters, guests use a mirror to read closed captioning projected
on the rear wall of the room in a method similar to a teleprompter. There's
a handheld PDA-type device that provides closed captioning of the park's show
narration as well. Live American sign language translators provide narration
in some live performances. On some rides, guests who may have problems entering
or leaving a ride vehicle can practice in a private room equipped with a stationary
car so guests can feel comfortable once they get on the real thing.
Powered scooters are also available for $30 a day. There's even a special golf
cart available. The Club Car OnePass allows guests to play the game from the
cart, including driving it onto the resort's 99 individual putting greens. Not
every accommodation needs to be as sophisticated.
In restaurants, Krasnoff says people with visual disabilities need to have the
table layout explained by the staff, comparing the layout to a clock face: "The
sugar is at 1 o'clock, and the salt and pepper is at 12. The salt is on the
right," or explaining to a hotel guest which bottle has the shampoo and
which has the conditioner.
The biggest problem, says Duke, is the "fear
factor." "People are afraid we are going to sue them or that we will
make their other guests uncomfortable."
Duke cites a conversation with a hotel general
manager who told her that he was uncomfortable having disabled guests in his
hotel. She told the executive, who is African-American, "Ten years ago,
that's what people were saying about you. It was like I hit him with a two-by-four.
Today, his hotel is one of the most disability-friendly in the country."
The important thing, Krasnoff says, is assuring staff that it is OK to offer
assistance to guests with disabilities. "The worst thing you can do is
not ask at all," he says. And some of the best things may be the most surprising.
Duke says Disney now requires all disabled guests
to wait in line, just like other customers. "But that's another result
of the ADA," she says. "Now we get to wait in line like everybody
else. That's equality."