VisitEngland Leads European "Access for All" Project

Following a successful pilot project in 2013 and 2014 with four destinations – Visit Bath, goLeicestershire, NewcastleGateshead and VisitBrighton, the national tourist authority, VisitEngland accessed funding from the European Commission to expand its Access for All initiative.

Photo: Kick-off meeting team members at The Hytte, Northumberland, by VisitEngland.

Visit England writes:

With a grant of €125,000, we are partnering with Visit Kent, Marketing Birmingham, Visit Lincoln, Visit Northumberland, Visit Peak District and Derbyshire, Experience Nottinghamshire and VisitBrighton to develop and promote their destination for visitors with access needs.

The project, which started in October 2014, consists of two phases: product development, where businesses are supported in improving their accessibility with the help of access advisors Access New Business, and a national consumer marketing campaign.

Over 50 tourism businesses are being directly supported as part of the project to improve their accessibility. Each business has received:

• A comprehensive accessibility audit
• Personalised feedback on their Access Statement
• Classroom disability awareness training for key employees, provided by Visits Unlimited, Accessible Derbyshire and Access Solutions
• Online disability awareness training for all customer-facing staff, provided by DisabledGo
• Mystery shopping feedback

Our second national marketing campaign will be launched in September 2015. Working in partnership with the Express newspaper, three full colour mini mag supplements (Coastal, Countryside and City) will be published in ‘S Magazine’ along with online and print adverts, competitions and more. The campaign aims to raise awareness of accessible destinations and businesses in England, improving perceptions of Accessible England.

More information and short videos at the VisitEngland webpage

VisitEngland is an Associate Member of ENAT.