Goa a disabled-friendly destination now

Enable Travel, which provides tours for people with disabilities, launches in Goa

March 31, 2017 12:04 am | Updated 12:04 am IST

Panaji: To make tourism more inclusive across the country, Enable Travel, an accessible-holiday specialist arm of Cox & Kings Ltd., included Goa to its network of 14 disabled-friendly cities on Wednesday.

Thomas C. Thottathil, vice president of corporate communications & CSR department of the company in Mumbai, said Enable Travel has introduced specially designed travel itineraries for people with disabilities in Goa.

The initiative aims to provide carefully crafted tours for people with speech, vision, and hearing impairments, and for the wheelchair-bound.

Debolin Sen, who is heading the initiative, and Enable Travel experts Rustom Irani (wheelchair) and Divyanshu Ganatra (vision), unveiled the product in Goa on Wednesday.

Mr. Sen said, “Enable Travel is a long-term commitment to empower each and every individual to celebrate their love for travel. We are trying to address various barriers like inaccessible travel information, lack of transportation, and disable friendly hotel rooms, that prevent people from travelling. Each of the itineraries, catering to inbound and domestic tourists, has been curated thoughtfully.”

As part of its service, Enable Travel will introduce, “quality transportation in the form of wheelchair accessible vehicles, and aids and accessories, like ramps and specialised wheelchairs,” Mr. Thomas said. “Support services also include specially trained manpower such as caregivers, sign language interpreters, expert guides and escorts.”

“Many tourists with disabilities are keen on exploring different travel experiences the country has to offer,” Karan Anand, who heads the Relationships department at Cox & Kings, said. He added, “It is important to tap this largely underserved segment of travellers by providing quality assistance and services that focus on individual needs. Enabling barrier-free travel for people with disabilities will contribute to a significant increase in inbound and domestic tourism.”

Rustom Irani, corporate filmmaker and writer, and an expert contributor on disabilities, said, “The more [people] travel, the more feedback we get, and [that’s how] we can improve the facilities. I will urge disabled people to travel. This is our fundamental right.” He also called upon governments and other facilitators to help in making accessible travel a big success.

Divyanshu Ganatra, founder of adventuresbeyondbarriers.com, lost his eyesight when he was 19. He said he realised, after he became blind, that it is not easy to travel as most places are not easily accessible for persons with disabilities. “[Travelling] is a constitutional right, it is our need and we have to have it,” he said, emphasising the need for disabled-friendly infrastructure.

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