Disabled people associate holidays with stress

As we approach UK Disability History Month (16 November 2022 – 16 December 2022), new data from Ocean Holidays highlights the stress and uncertainty disabled people and their families feel when going on holiday.

Over half (51%) of disabled people associate holidays with stress and a third (36%) related the experience with frustration. These negative experiences have impacted 65% of disabled people’s attitudes toward travelling, with 1 in 10 going as far as avoiding leisure travel, due to not being confident that their additional needs could be met.

Holiday stress for disabled people begins before they even depart, as 9 in 10 (90%) experience problems when booking a holiday or trip. Difficulties during the booking process often include finding affordable and suitable accommodation (32%), lack of information on websites about support available (31%), staff’s lack of knowledge (26%) and hidden fees (25%).

To combat many of the issues highlighted in the research, Ocean Holidays are calling for the travel industry to do more to ensure the needs of disabled people are met. Having recently launched an Accessibility Programme, influenced by his own experience, they want to help improve the holiday experience for people with disabilities and take the hassle out of holidays.

Aston spoke to the CEO and co-founder of Ocean Holidays Harry Hastings.

Photo by Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash