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Disabled traveller market has huge commercial value, says Tui accessibility chief

Travel companies should increase their focus on accessibility not just as it is the right thing to do but because there is a commercial benefit, according to Tui’s accessibility manager.

Speaking on a Spain for All panel at World Travel Market 2024, Marina Snellenberg said travellers with access needs tend to spend more money on their holidays, making them a lucrative segment of the market to target.

“The industry has often focused on the moral argument of accessible travel, that it’s the right thing to do. And of course, it is,” said Snellenberg. “Then there’s the legal argument, that we have to make sure it [travel] is accessible, and that’s also correct.

“But at Tui we have recently switched the argument towards the commercial side: customers with access needs spend more, stay longer, book earlier, travel more often and travel in larger groups than those without access needs.”


More: Spain can be ‘best ever’ destination for disabled travellers, says Ade Adepitan


Snellenberg said this meant it made “commercial sense” for companies to have a strong accessible holidays strategy that caters for the needs and requirements of those with access needs.

She added firms should also place a greater focus on their accessibility strategy because the global population is aging, and “prevalence of disability rises with age”.

Panel moderator Angus Drummond, chief executive of disabled travel specialist Limitless Travel, said it is “brilliant that Tui is prioritising this [accessibility]” and encouraged other companies to follow suit.

‘Spain for All’ ambassador Ade Adepitan – a TV presenter and wheelchair basketball player – who was also on the panel, agreed that the disabled travel market represents considerable untapped revenue .

He said: “The spending power, in just the UK alone, of disabled people is in the billions.

“For so long, not enough people have marketed to us, have looked at us. Accessibility means a world for everyone, not just for disabled people.”

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