Tourism destination choice sets for families with wheelchair-bound children

Abstract

ABSTRACTFamilies with disabled children encounter a range of mobility constraints when travelling for tourism purposes, yet how such constraints affect their ultimate destination choices is currently not well understood. This paper applies a destination choice set model to explain how families with wheelchair-bound children with cerebral palsy choose their holiday destinations. Interviews with 13 parents revealed that these families find many destinations unavailable due to various mobility and travel constraints, such as inaccessible modes of transport and accommodations. The destination choices are trade-offs between constraints and desires of the disabled child and other family members. The findings suggest that the destination choice set model for this particular target group should also consider an ‘accessible set’ of destinations with universal design when exploring travel-related decisions of these families. Finally, the paper argues for a more differentiated approach towards identifying and responding to travel constraints of families with disabled children.