Name: Visit Worcestershire
Price range: $

The ‘Accessible Tourism’ market in the UK is estimated to be worth a staggering £14.6 million, with 1 in 4 visitors likely to have accessibility requirements. Yet many businesses are unsure how to tap into this huge market or feel that doing so will be complicated or costly. As a result, many are currently missing out and may even be inadvertently turning valuable business away.

Yet, at its heart, being more accessible is really all about doing what visitor economy businesses already do best: making everybody welcome and demonstrating to each and every visitor that ‘we know you, we understand you and we value you’. It is simply a case of broadening how we think about this and understanding the many small, often simple, changes that can make a big difference.

This support programme will equip businesses with the skills, knowledge and confidence to make those changes, helping to grow visitor numbers, increase profitability, improve customer satisfaction and enhance their local communities.

Benefits of taking part include:

• fully funded training which will equip key staff members to champion accessibility and train other staff and volunteers
• a review of their venue’s accessibility and creation of a prioritised improvement plan
• access to specialist 1 to 1 support
• £1,000 to help fund initial improvements

One of the aims of the 2022 government’s Tourism Sector Recovery Plan is for the UK to be the most accessible tourism destination in Europe by 2025. As one of the country’s new Local Visitor Economy Partnerships, Visit Worcestershire is leading the way, supporting its businesses to play a key role in making that vision a reality through this innovative new programme.

Expression of Interest Form & Guidance

Applications are now CLOSED

Expressions of Interest can be submitted from January 2024 and the deadline to submit the EOI will be Wednesday 20th March 2024. Please note, you must attend the workshop below in order to be considered for the programme.

Accessible Product Examples

Jane Cooper from Access and Inclusion UK will be holding an initial online workshop “Accessible Tourism Who dares Win - Business Workshop” on Wednesday 21st February from 10am – 11:30am.

This will be open to all businesses to join. Following on from the workshop, businesses can enter an expression of interest to be one of 20 supported individually by accessibility consultants to really bring accessibility to the forefront of your business.

Please also refer to the Guidance Pack for details of training dates you will be required to partake in.

Applications are now CLOSED

If you have any questions or require further information, please email visitworcestershire@worcestershire.gov.uk