Tourism: Disability

(asked on 18th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to (a) encourage private businesses in the tourism sector to be more accessible to disabled people and (b) work with the Welsh Government to supply businesses with free access to accessibility guides.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 24th May 2021

My Department, alongside VisitBritain and VisitEngland, have taken a number of steps to improve accessibility within the tourism sector.

For example, VisitBritain and VisitEngland launched the Channel 4 Mission: Accessible series last year, which highlighted the perspective of visitors with access needs enjoying the tourism landscape and included an episode filmed in Wales.

VisitEngland has a dedicated web portal providing tailored business advice to tourism businesses, including guidance on how to welcome guests with different access needs.

The Tourism Sector Deal, published in June 2019, set out an ambition to make the UK the most accessible destination in Europe by 2025. The Tourism Recovery Plan will set out how we will support the tourism sector to build back better from the pandemic, including by making it more accessible.

More generally, the Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people, and will publish the National Strategy for Disabled People this year. The strategy will take into account the impacts of the pandemic on disabled people and will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life.

As tourism is devolved, the Welsh Government is responsible for any targeted initiatives to support the sector in Wales - though we will continue to engage with the Devolved Administrations to discuss issues relevant to the tourism sector.

Reticulating Splines