Guest comment: London is missing out

Guest comment by Anita Thornberry, head of tourism at the London Development Agency (LDA)

LDA organised an important tourism conference this week in London. It debated the whole issue of accessibility and why London is still missing out on millions of tourists because it is not providing good facilities for the very young, old and people with disabilities.

Our research at LDA for the conference showed London’s hotels, shops and attractions put ‘accessibility’ in a separate box where it is seen as a cost rather than a benefit. The recent debates around the Disability Discrimination Act have tended to reinforce the view that disability is somehow just a costly add-on, required by law.

Yet the market is potentially enormous. There are 10 million disabled people in the UK with an estimated £6 billion to spend on travel and tourism. Europe’s elderly and disabled population is about 120 million and the US disabled market is about 50 million. Add to this the carers, families and friends and the market is larger still. And people who need good accessibility are often loyal customers, returning to good places again and again.

You only have to look at the example of Disney to see that accessibility makes commercial sense. If you ask them what ‘special provision’ they make for disabled visitors they answer that they practice ‘universal design’. Disney’s head of accessibility Bob Minnick, who spoke at the conference, says that Disney makes attractions accessible to everyone, of all shapes, sizes and abilities. Drinking fountains that work for someone using a wheelchair are at the perfect height for a child.

For Disney, total accessibility is core to its customer service and makes absolute business sense. It has noticed a growing demand for its ‘universally designed’ parks and hotels from family reunion groups, with people of all ages from toddlers to grandparents in wheelchairs.

The good news for the UK is that, although way behind the US, we are already one step ahead of the rest of Europe in responding to accessibility legislation and London could have a distinct advantage over other cities if it gets its act together.

We need urgently to work together to decide the priorities for London, to get all the many organisations involved actually talking to each other and to help operators develop the business case for investment.

And as Peter White of the BBC has reported from the lessons learned from the Athens Paralympic Games, this will be crucial in the bidding for the overall London 2012 Olympic bid.