The APAC region's first conference for accessible and inclusive tourism launches on May 6, offering travel professionals and companies the opportunity to learn more about an untapped and misunderstood sector of the industry.  

Scheduled across four Thursdays during the month, AITCAP (Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Conference In Asia Pacific) features more than 40 speakers who will cover a diverse array of subjects that include the sector's enormous economic potential, how destinations can better attract travellers, and how businesses and individuals can take the first steps towards becoming more accessible and inclusive.

Yasmine Gray, GetAboutAble's founder and AITCAP's organiser, herself an experienced wheelchair traveller, says that: “The accessible and inclusive tourism market is both far bigger and easier to attract than many imagine. With the industry taking time to look at fresh ways to attract new income streams into the future, I urge everybody to consider the simple fact that 20% of people travel with a form of disability.”

The conference days have individual themes, beginning on May 6 with Best Practice in Accessible & Inclusive Tourism. On May 13 the focus shifts to Understanding and Attracting the Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Market, and is followed on May 20 with Accessible & Inclusive Destination Marketing for the sector. The event concludes on 27 May with a look at the Future of Accessible & Inclusive Tourism.  

Opening keynote co-speaker, Experience Co. CEO and former Tourism Australia MD John O'Sullivan, said: "As the industry emerges from COVID-19 across Asia-Pacific it has never been more important for operators, hoteliers and airlines to be aware of the needs of accessible tourists and experience seekers in our industry."

Professor Simon Darcy, Co-Lead UTS Disability Research Network and also an opening keynote speaker for the conference, said: "We have a rare opportunity coming out of COVID-19 to ensure that core to the restart the economy and travel are done so in the most accessible and inclusive way so people with disability are at the front of the resurgence with everybody else. The Accessible and Inclusive Tourism in the Asia-Pacific conference will provide insights into how this should be done as both an economic and human rights imperative. Come and learn from suppliers, customers with disability and government agencies about how easy it is to welcome everybody through understanding their abilities."

Concession tickets are available for students and other groups. 

For further information on the conference, including how to register, visit the AITCAP website at https://www.getaboutable.com/aitcap

 About AITCAP

The Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Conference in the Asia-Pacific is a virtual event scheduled across the four Thursdays of May 2021. It will be fully accessible, captioned and transcribed, and attendees can access recordings if they can't join the live event.

As Europe and the United States have started to get the value of the “Purple or Disabled Dollar”, the APAC region is still ignoring the huge market potential that accessible & inclusive tourism represents. AITCAP aims at offering all travel & leisure organisations a chance to take the first steps in serving those travellers, creating a new growth dynamic in the region.

About Getaboutable.com:
GetAboutAble is a social enterprise focused on improving travel and leisure options for people with disabilities. Its website getaboutable.com offers a unique platform to promote inclusive businesses around the globe while encouraging and supporting them to tap into the “Disabled Dollar'” It is a powerful and useful tool to connect the inclusive travel and leisure sector with increasing demand from people with disabilities who don't know what is accessible in any given location, not to mention how to organise it.

For more information contact:

Manon David - AITCAP coordinator
Getaboutable.com

Email: aitcap@getaboutable.com

Phone: 0468 487 752

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