Accessible Travel Is Growing. The Industry Isn't Ready.

The first time I stayed at a five-star hotel after becoming a wheelchair user, I was assigned a room with exterior stairs leading to the door. When I pointed out that the arrangement wouldn't work for me, the staff showed me an alternate path. But even that had a problem. It took me across the grass and through the lanai, meaning my only way in and out of the room was through a patio door I'd need to leave unlocked.

Here I was, a globe-trotting marketing consultant with dozens of countries behind me, and this was what the luxury market had to offer.

Unfortunately, I'm not alone in this experience. But I don't think it's because the travel industry is indifferent. It's because the industry can't see the situation clearly.

Accessible travel metrics aren't widely or consistently documented, which means most travel companies can't gauge how many of their clients have one or more accessibility needs, let alone what those needs are.

Plenty of hospitality businesses have already demonstrated an ability to adapt when accessibility needs are brought into focus. Take food allergies, for example. Ten years ago, diners often had to implore restaurants to check ingredient lists. Today, it's common practice to print allergy information on menus and have servers ask about dietary restrictions before taking orders.

The change didn't happen because demand appeared out of nowhere. It happened because enough consumers made the demand visible. Mobility needs, chronic illnesses, sensory differences and dietary restrictions are the next frontier for proactive hospitality, and the brands that move first will have a real advantage.

When I joined Fora as a travel advisor in 2023, one point kept surfacing in conversations: Accessible travel is not a niche.

In reality, it's one of the largest underserved segments in the luxury travel market, and it's only going to grow as the world's population ages.

Now is the time to take concrete steps to close the current gaps, and much of the foundation is already in place. Hotels offer accessible rooms. Properties accommodate guests with food allergies, hearing impairments and service animals. Cruise lines are developing accessible excursions. Yet these offerings rarely appear in marketing materials, sales pitches or search results.

As a result, travelers with specific needs often struggle to identify the hotels, destinations and suppliers that are the best fit. Some travelers even stay home because they're tired of following up or feel like a burden simply for asking that their basic needs be met.

Reducing that friction is a win-win. More travelers find what they need, and travel sales increase because demand that already exists finally has somewhere to go.

Fora is already putting real numbers behind this opportunity. In its first year of tracking the metric, the company booked $75 million in accessible travel. Rather than investing in a brand campaign or paid media strategy, Fora focused on training advisors, creating curated property lists and building a community of specialists whose expertise ranges from wheelchair-accessible beaches in Sicily to cruise lines that work well for families traveling with adults with autism.

Scaling that kind of impact across the industry starts with addressing three barriers that are still holding travel companies back.

Three Innovation Gaps in Accessible Travel

1. The Data Gap

The way most booking systems are set up today, there's no easy way for companies to pull accessibility-related metrics, such as the number of accessible rooms booked or travelers with food allergies, autism or chronic illnesses.

As a result, that information often isn't measured or aggregated despite clear demand. Yet those decisions are being made every day by travelers, and suppliers are seeing a significant increase in multigenerational bookings that often include more than one accessibility accommodation within the same trip.

Fora's more than 15,000 advisors have booked more than $2.5 billion in travel for more than 400,000 travelers, giving the company insight into how travel decisions are actually made. That foundation is now informing a large-scale market study on accessible travel designed to provide suppliers, advisors and the broader industry with actionable data to inform training programs and future planning.

2. The Advisor Gap

Most agencies aren't equipped or confident enough to serve travelers with accessibility needs in the same way they support other clients. Often, these travelers are referred to niche agencies that charge significantly more while delivering a less personalized experience.

At Fora, every advisor is trained to be an accessibility advocate who understands that special requirements are part of the core customer experience, not an exception to it. Beyond that foundation, a group of specialists provides deeper expertise on more complex needs, from oxygen logistics and dialysis coordination to severe food allergies.

This approach results in better trips for clients and a broader addressable market for advisors. It also gives advisors who have personal experience traveling with these needs an opportunity to share valuable insights with the suppliers they meet.

3. The Supplier Gap

Suppliers are already doing more than they communicate. What's missing is proactive positioning.

Fora is helping close that gap by pairing demand with data and traveler stories to show industry partners how their existing accessibility offerings can appear more effectively in web searches, AI-generated responses and the tools advisors use to match clients with suppliers.

These improvements are less about overhauling infrastructure and more about improving transparency and expanding the definition of hospitality. There's no expectation of perfection, only awareness and a willingness to meet travelers where they are. Two simple shifts that can go a long way.

Where We Go Next

I'm only six years into my journey as a wheelchair user, but I'm active enough in the community to know how empowering it is when people can travel freely and what it costs when they can't.

As an industry, we have a tremendous opportunity to better support a group of travelers that has historically been underrecognized and underserved. Making improvements starts with being curious and receptive to feedback, even when the financial payoff isn't immediate.

For many of us at Fora, including me, members of the executive team and company investors, the mission to advance accessible travel is personal. We have family members, close friends and parents with these needs. That's true across a broad cross-section of the industry, but perhaps more importantly, it's true across a broad cross-section of the people we serve.

Change takes time, but I've seen firsthand how quickly it can happen when companies take it seriously. I'm optimistic the industry can rise to the challenge.