[Chris G Veitch]

In terms of measurement I don’t think this would be that easy to do in any detailed way in the sense of the impact across all access requirements, which can be many.

A number of factors also come into play in terms of understanding the need to provide appropriate information and the impact this has in decision making e.g. Accessibility Guides about businesses. The quality of customer service, which is related back to training. Understanding the impact of removing physical barriers and the provision of appropriate facilities for people, again across a range of requirements from dietary to hearing, visual, cognitives and mobility, remembering that people are likely to have more than one access requirement and will have a mix.

I think the key would be to look at the impact of improved information and staff training, these two factors can help the development of businesses to be more accessible and they help highlight businesses that are already delivering great service to those with access requirements but just aren’t recognised for this.

This can be a difficult area to measure, it’s a bit like quality, it is very personal, what might work for you might not work for me, how do you accurately measure that? Which is why it is important to ensure that tourism is developed by government on the pillars of sustainability and inclusion, if destinations are to be successful going into the future they can’t afford to ignore these elements.

Perhaps the simplest measure is for destinations to understand what can we do better and to ensure that they listen to the broadest audience of visitors and those living in the community, who also benefit from measures to improve accessibility? Naturally any actions responding to concerns raised should be measured from the same audience to understand their impact. This is another way of looking at the impact, yes businesses do need to understand the economic impact, but to make the change the voice of the customers should come to the fore, this is what they are asking for and want and if destinations do not respond, they will lose out, a little bit like the 142 billion Euros estimated to be lost in Europe back in 2014.