Accessible Alpine Tourism Project in Australia

A colleague, Scott Rains of the Rolling Rains Report, alerted me to the Snow Mountains accessible tourism resources (Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association, 2010). What Scott didn’t know was that the resources are an excellent example of operationalising previous research and value adding through new research. The resources were developed as part of the Australian Accessible Alpine Tourism project (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008). The Alpine Accessible Tourism Project was funded under Ausindustry’s Australian Tourism Development Program and was co-ordinated by Disabled WinterSport Australia (DWA). The project built on DWA’s 30 years of providing snow sport experiences and sought to develop, document, market and promote accessible summer tourism experiences. Within a participatory action research (Denzin & Lincoln, 2003) and destination management approach (Laws, 1995; Ritchie & Crouch, 2002). The methodology involved:

• Working in collaboration with stakeholders in alpine areas through workshops, seminars and individual consultation;
• Evaluating over 100 tourism providers based on an access auditing protocol developed by Cameron (Cameron, 2000, 2004, 2008);  
• Developing a web-based toolkit for tourism operators who wished to develop their levels of accessibility (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008);
• Providing disability awareness training to outdoor activity operators to aid them in being more inclusive in their activities;
• Producing Mobility maps of alpine communities in New South Wales and Victoria; and
• Establishing a promotional strategy to disseminate information to journals, newspapers and other marketing bodies to promote those businesses that had been assessed (Dickson & Hurrell, 2008).

Photo 1 is from the launch of the CD-ROM that culminated in a hike up Mt Kosciuszko, the highest peak in Australia, to celebrate the  the International Day for People with Disabilities in 2008. Participants included representatives of all access groups, including five people using wheelchairs, one person with a guide dog, a mother with two children in a cycle trailer and several older people. The hike was by no means easily accessible with the gradients and surface not compliant to Australian Standards for Access and Mobility (Standards Australia, 1992a, 1992b, 2002, 2009)but in the spirit of adventure tourism the participants with access considerations accepted the challenge and the inherent risk involved. Other Australian destination management projects and local government approaches Including have been summarized in Darcy and Dickson (2009).

Photo 1: Mt Kosciuszko Trek

References

Cameron, B. (2000). Easy Access Australia (2nd ed.). Kew, Vic: Kew Publishing.

Cameron, B. (2004, 20-22 September). Accessible tourism product-the future. Paper presented at the Out of the blue: Valuing the disability market in tourism.  The 5th National NICAN Conference, Perth, Western Australia.

Cameron, B. (2008). Accessible Drive Tourism Routes Available from http://www.tourism.australia.com/

Darcy, S., & Dickson, T. (2009). A Whole-of-Life Approach to Tourism: The Case for Accessible Tourism Experiences. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 32-44.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2003). Strategies of qualitative inquiry (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Dickson, T., & Hurrell, M. (Writer). (2008). Alpine Accessibility Tourism Toolkit [DVD]. In T. Dickson (Producer). Australia: Australian Tourism Development Program/Australian Federal Government Initiative.

Laws, E. (1995). Tourist destination management: Issues, analysis and policies: Routledge London.

Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2002, Dec 3). Destination Performance Index: Indicators of Performance and Success for Destinations. Paper presented at the WTO Think Tank on Tourism Destination Management, Madrid.

Snowy Mountains Regional Tourism Association. (2010). Accessible accommodation and attractions.   Retrieved 6 Feb, 2010, from http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Accommodation.html http://snowymountains.com.au/Accessible_Attractions.html

Standards Australia. (1992a). AS 1428.2 - Design for access and mobility - Enhanced and additional requirements - Buildings and facilities ([Rev. ] ed.). North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (1992b). AS 1428.3 Design for access and mobility - Requirements for children and adolescents with physical disabilities North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (2002). AS/NZS 1428.4 - Design for access and mobility - Tactile indicators North Sydney, NSW: Standards Australia.

Standards Australia. (2009). AS 1428.1 Design for access and mobility - General requirements for access - New building work (4th ed.). Homebush, NSW: Standards Australia.