WINDOW TO THE WORLD OF DISABILITY TRAVEL
By Jani Nayar

Wouldn't you be interested in a client base with an estimated aggregate income of more than one trillion dollars, spending more time at their destinations than the average traveler, traveling mostly in low season and firm in their loyalty? No, this is no hypothesis, but an absolute reality that few are paying attention to. Their discretionary income in 1996 was $176 billion (U.S. Census Bureau). These potential travelers constitute the largest consumer base of USA or rather one in every five Americans; the people with disabilities!

So why is there no stampede into this lucrative market? A Harris Poll has found that 58% of Americans are uneasy dealing with people with disabilities and 47% actually feel fear. The root cause is lack of knowledge. How to deal with them? What are their needs? How to meet those needs? How to facilitate their transportation and accommodation requirements? How to address them? What is the correct terminology - handicapped, physically challenged or people with disabilities? Perplexing questions, all. Once these hurdles are overcome through a clear understanding of the different aspects of disability travel and the dos and don'ts, this enormous market transforms into a viable source of revenue for your travel organization.

SATH (Society for Accessible Travel & Hospitality), an educational, membership based non profit organization founded in 1976, has been working in this field for the past three decades to impart knowledge to travel agents and other travel industry professionals and to train them to serve this market efficiently. The members comprise of travel agents, tour operators and other travel professionals apart from the consumers. SATH's mission is to raise awareness of the needs of all travelers with disabilities, remove physical and attitudinal barriers to free access and expand travel opportunities in the United States and abroad. The Society's efforts bore fruit with the access section of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Air Carriers Access Act. Through the years of existence, SATH has emerged as the most trusted source for accessibility information for both industry and consumer.

The benefits of becoming a professional travel member of SATH are manifold:

• Since SATH is a 501 C3 (non profit) organization, membership fee is exempt from tax.
• SATH sponsors such as HP, Scoot Around North America etc. extend special discounts on products and services.
• Access to Members only section (presently under construction) on SATH website.
• Announcing your special programs for people with disabilities on the members only section of the SATH website.
• Access to SATH magazine Open World online or print.
• SATH Newsletter with news, views and information on disability travel.
• E-mail Broadcasts of new developments, press releases and updates.
• Discounts for participation at the SATH World Congress and other SATH events.
• Use of SATH's booths at several Travel as well as Disability Expos to distribute your promotional information.
• A link to your web site from SATH web site.
• Use of SATH logo on your brochures.
• List of suppliers and service providers in the US as well as abroad who specialize in disability travel.
• Last but not the least: you will be contributing to SATH's continued work in this field, which has made a tremendous difference in travel for people with disabilities.

Congresses, seminars and workshops conducted by organizations such as SATH is crucial to your success in being a travel agent who meets their needs. One of SATH's key endeavors, to raise awareness and provide detailed training on how to market to and serve travelers with disabilities, is the World Congress for Travelers with Disabilities and the Mature since 1997. It is open to travel agents and other industry personnel who are interested in developing expertise in this market.

According to TIA, travelers with disabilities generate a total of 194,000 travel-related jobs, $4.22 billion in payroll and $2.52 billion in tax revenues in the USA. A survey conducted last year gave us the amazing fact that people with disabilities spend roughly $13.6 billion a year on travel, out of which $3.3 billion goes to airlines and $4.2 billion to hotels. "These statistics demonstrate that, if properly reached, people with disabilities can be an extremely profitable marketing target," says Eric Lipp, Founder and Director of the Open Doors Organization who conducted the survey.

On a more perturbing note, quite discouragingly for travel agents, the study revealed that only 20% of travelers with disabilities seek a travel agent for their tour arrangements. The travel industry needs to take stock of the situation and gear up to meet this daunting challenge. A step in time will certainly lead to the golden goose!

Take that first step by enrolling as a SATH member and join us in making a world of difference to disability travel and to your bottom lines!

VISIT THE SATH WEBSITE AT WWW.SATH.ORG

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