Tour Firms’ Readiness to Cater for Physically Impaired Tourists in Kenya

Abstract

The concept of accessible tourism aims to facilitate physically impaired tourists to participate in mainstream tourism activities. Although it is a requirement for tour firms to have requisites to handle physically impaired tourists, and there is a growing desire for physically impaired people to participate in tourism, it is not clear whether tour firms have availed the necessary facilities for this market. This study puts the concept of accessible tourism into perspective by; determining tour firms‟ readiness to cater for physically impaired tourists in Kenya. The study adopted a QUAN-QUAL approach to obtain data using self-administered questionnaires and an observation checklist. The study targeted tour firms found in Kenya. A representative sample of 104 tour firms registered by KATO was sampled. Purposive sampling technique was used to target 1 management employee from each of the tour firms sampled. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and correlation analysis. Findings of this study revealed that; a majority of the tour firms were not adequately prepared to cater for physically impaired tourists. Further, some tour firms had achieved meager milestones towards handling tourists with mobility impairments. The findings of the study will facilitate, policy planning, programming and implementation of policies that will see accessible tourism embraced in Kenya. From this study, academicians will equally gain insight for future studies on the state of accessible tourism in Kenya.