Trade must cater to blind tourists

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The Middle East travel trade must do more to cater to the needs of blind and partially-sighted tourists, according to a blind tourism specialist.

There are currently 161 million blind or partially-impaired tourists worldwide, and Amar Latif, founder and director of specialist air tour operator for blind and partially-sighted travellers, Traveleyes, said one of the biggest challenges facing the Middle East travel industry was how to tailor holidays around features that stimulate senses other than sight.

"As expectations of access, empowerment and technology develop rapidly, more people with a visual disability are questioning old assumptions regarding their exclusion from experiences and activities that able-bodied travellers take for granted," said Latif.

Some of the measures Latif urged the industry to adopt included liaising with organisations in destination countries to foster best practice and introduce website technology to aid visually-impaired tourists.

"It remains a problem that the majority of travel websites are inaccessible for blind people. With us, customers don't need to have an in-built speech programme; information can be made accessible with screen reading software," he said.

"Speech readers are advanced and if websites are created in an accessible way, they can even describe the accompanying pictures and the graphics to blind people.

A winner of the Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Award, Latif will conduct a seminar entitled Traveleyes opens the eyes of the world to Blind Travel, exploring the potential of the visually-impaired travel market for the Middle East travel trade.

"The main challenges to this market have been a succession of vital issues pertaining to the provision of a full service, with features that are specifically geared to the needs of both blind customers and sighted ones.

"These are features that have previously been unavailable, or certainly difficult to obtain, from commercial air tour operators," he said.

"Companies that have embraced the disability access issue with open minds and have wholeheartedly committed to it have benefited not only from commendations for their excellent customer service and the best possible public image, but they also tend to report huge boosts to their trading figures.

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