Laying the foundations: Strategy and policy
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Include an objective on accessible tourism as part of your LVEP strategy/vision
Identify the steps needed to achieve this within your Destination Management Plan
Monitor your progress against this plan on a regular basis
Adapt your Destination Management Plan
VisitEngland has created a guide to Destination Management Planning. As the main strategy document for your destination, your Destination Management Plan (DMP) should include accessible destination development.
You could incorporate accessible tourism into your destination management plan in several ways:
- identifying accessible destination development as one of the principles and aims for your destination over the next five years
- specifying accessibility as one of your ‘brand values’
- highlighting accessible tourism as part of your strategic direction and priorities accompanied by a set of clear objectives
- including accessible tourism in the vision statement for your destination e.g., ‘to create an accessible, inclusive tourism destination for the benefit of all our visitors and local communities’
- specifying the key steps required to achieve the above in any action plan for destination development. These may include:
- the identification of access barriers within your destination e.g. by carrying out destination access audits (add link to destination audit)
- the removal of these barriers to the greatest extent possible
- the development of accessible information, facilities and services
- marketing and promoting the accessibility of your destination, its businesses and tourism products.
For example, the DMP from Shropshire reflects the benefits of wellbeing for local residents and accessibility as part of their sustainability agenda.
In addition to your DMP, your LVEP Growth Plan includes a section on aligning with Government priorities, which includes accessibility and inclusivity. You should look to include the approaches set out in this toolkit within your Growth Plan at the next review point, which may include elements of the ‘Laying the foundations’ section and/or one of the two programmes. Your VisitEngland Regional Development Lead can support you with selecting appropriate actions.
Your DMP and LVEP Growth Plan should support a continuous process of learning and improvement both within your LVEP and the wider stakeholder group. This will help to ensure that all future development actions and initiatives will be in line with the overall goal of accessible destination development.
Monitor progress
Setting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at destination level will help you to monitor your progress. You could also ask businesses participating in the programme to keep a list of the changes they have made and the impact these have had, including positive feedback from visitors which they are happy to share.
It is recommended that you include accessibility-related questions in any surveys you are running with your businesses and visitors. These should reflect the standardised accessibility questions within the LVEP business and visitor surveys provided by VisitEngland – contact your Regional Development Lead for a copy.
Consider the KPIs you can set at destination level, which could include:
- the number of businesses in your region with Accessibility Guides;
- the number of page views on your website accessibility page;
- the number of businesses who are listed within this section;
- the number of businesses who have submitted applications for any accessibility award categories you have.
You can download a list of potential destination KPIs from the downloads section of the toolkit.
