Report: Disabled Travelers Spend $58 Billion a Year and Want Better Access
August 9, 2022
Seth McBride
Despite spending $58.2 billion a year on travel and taking leisure trips at a similar frequency as nondisabled travelers, Americans with mobility disabilities represent a significant but poorly served market force in the travel industry, according to a new industry-group survey.
MMGY Travel Intelligence, a research firm focused on the travel and hospitality industry, surveyed 2,375 Americans with mobility disabilities and presented the results in “Portrait of Travelers With Disabilities: Mobility and Accessibility.” The firm hopes the data and insights will help travel and hospitality organizations “understand and meet the needs of millions of people who use mobility aids, as well as their traveling companions.”
Nearly all respondents (96%) faced problems at hotels or other accommodations, while 86% experienced flight problems and 40% had mobility equipment lost or damaged by an airline.
Survey respondents listed increased accessibility information and expanded accessible infrastructure as top priorities for ways that destinations could better attract visitors with mobility disabilities. Respondents also wanted to be able to judge access for themselves, by being able to see photos of the exact room they are booking or by taking virtual tours of places they plan to visit.
MMGY will donate sales of the report to United Spinal Association. “United Spinal is grateful for the work of MMGY Global in raising awareness on the accessibility needs of travelers with mobility disabilities. As a wheelchair user, I know firsthand the barriers our community must overcome when traveling, including damage to mobility equipment at the airport [or] encountering unexpected accessibility issues at hotels and other venues. Identifying these issues is critical to ensuring travel is accessible to all,” said Vincenzo Piscopo, president and CEO of United Spinal.
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WTF!?!? The only way to read the report costs $2500?? What kind of joke/scam is THIS?
Well they did mention all proceeds will go to United Spinal Association, but I agree. How are we suppose to get exposure and REAL quantitative analysis out there to the public in order to educate, advocate and change, if the cost for doing so creates a financial burden?
Well. You’re obviously wealthy enough to travel 🙄 /s seriously, though, usually with stuff like this you can usually contact the author of the study, who makes zero money off of the sale, and they’ll probably send you a copy. But I can’t find an author. So this is probably a study done by the organization and “sharing” this study is incredibly tone dead for a publication like NM.
Thank you for your comments, and we hear you on the cost. We should have clarified that the report was intended for travel industry insiders — such as destination management/marketing organizations, hoteliers and travel agencies — not a general audience. MMGY assembled the report as part of its Travel Intelligence Profile Series which focuses on underserved communities to promote a more equitable travel landscape. Hopefully that price tag won’t scare off the big corporations that need to know more about serving travelers with disabilities.
You are right, Judith! $2500! Who is going to pay for that other than the richest hotel chains? Doesn’t seem like a good marketing strategy to get the word out that disabled travelers have LOTS of money to spend and want to travel without totally unnecessary barriers.
It’s like everything else that has the word “mobility” or “accessibility” in it, just an extra zero or two behind the cost.
Black Lives Matter, but not one person in congress even know we exist, we the paralyzed or paralysis , wheelchair bound people that have to deal with more adversities than any other human, financially, physically, mentally, we all put up with this discrimination way to long, while the so called disabled people eat a way at are well being, come on ground control with need to speak up and quit pretending that we are doing okay,good, in fear of someone thinking that we are doing terrible, we fake it every day of our lives, We are the true movie stars, Major Tom.
I’ve been to my fair share of destinations, and I can’t really say that they I’ve experienced the troubles others say they’ve encountered. I guess I’ve been really lucky. In the 21 years I’ve been disabled, I’ve only had an airline damage my chair once. I’ve also only really had one issue with a hotel not having an accessible room for me upon my arrival. The guest decided to extend their stay so the room was unavailable. The hotel accommodated me by giving us a suite at no additional cost.
I’d say my biggest source of frustration when traveling is the transportation. Most cities do not have accessible taxis, so I have to resort to renting a wheelchair van which is a huge expense!
I just had an awful experience at a hotel-I’m wondering how to bring attention to this, because the hotel industry has many shortfalls with respect to disabilities.
We just ran into problems with platform beds….lifts do not fit under them. We have a blog that is more for the retired but you are welcome to check it out. http://www.AbleNDisabled.com