Medical and social models of disability: a tourism providers' perspective

Abstract

In order to understand and facilitate accessible leisure and tourism, supply-side perspectives need to be researched. Destination organisations' and service providers' perceptions of tourists with disabilities are decisive for the tourism “product” available to leisure tourists with disabilities. Thus, the basic assumption underlying this paper is that perceptions held by tourism suppliers manifest themselves in certain end-products for tourists with disabilities. In an attempt to clarify these perceptions, medical and social models of disability are utilised. While the former describes disability as an individual and bodily issue, the latter takes into account disabling barriers in society. The empirical study includes semi-structured in-depth interviews in four tourist destinations in Denmark and Germany. All in all, 84 company representatives were interviewed about their perceptions of tourists with disabilities. The results show that this matter is neither seen from an exclusively medical nor social perspective as the interviewees tend to draw on both of these models. Accordingly, the perceptions of disability that define the characteristics of tourist offerings available to individuals with disabilities are much more complex than anticipated. The paper points to the implications of this complexity and in particular: (1) managerial implications in the form of a more systemic approach to accessible tourism; and (2) research implications in the form of a call for more studies on tourism providers’ enactment of accessible tourism.

Keywords:

• accessible tourism
• tourists with disabilities
• people with disabilities
• perceptions
• medical model of disability
• social model of disability
• enactment
• sense-making

Notes

1. Refers to interviewee number.