Responsible Tourism is about making holidays and travel for everyone more sustainable and using tourism to make better places for people to live in and better places for people to visit, but one of the key challenges is to broaden access.

The Responsible Tourism movement has addressed all forms of tourism and struggled to escape the tiny ecotourism niche.
 
Last year as part of World Responsible Tourism Day we looked at the business case for Taking Responsibility for Ensuring Access for All. You can download the highly informative presentations here.
 
But there are two distinct arguments for taking responsibility for increasing access for people with disabilities:  there is an economic and a social case. The economic case is the business case, there is a market opportunity  which includes all those who want to travel, visit or stay with a person with disabilities. It is a large market.
 
There is also a social case. In the Forest of Bowland a number of businesses have worked together to raise money for Trampers which enable walkers and mountain bikers to share the experience with the elderly and others with mobility challenges.
 
There is a clear social imperative for more inclusive forms of tourism, of enabling those with disabilities or very limited financial resources to have a holiday. Social Tourism includes

• Ensuring access for people with all kinds of disabilities
• Enabling those with limited financial resources to have a holiday, carers, families, the elderly
• Enabling local people and school children to see the wildlife, visit a cultural monument – in many destinations local people are excluded from the heritage sites visited by tourists

Full story:

www.wtmlondon.com/page.cfm/Action=library/libID=1/listID=5/libEntryID=294

Harold is Professor of Responsible Tourism Management at Leeds Metropolitan University where he teaches and researches in the International Centre of Events, Tourism and Hospitality in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality. Harold researches on tourism, local economic development and poverty reduction, conservation and responsible tourism and teaches Masters and PhD students. as well as the industry, local communities, governments, and conservationists. Harold also undertakes consultancy and evaluations for companies, NGOs, governments, and international organisations.

He is also a Member of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism which he founded in 2002 and which promotes the principles of the Cape Town Declaration.