Preparing for

an accessible event

Objectives
In the year prior to The Commonwealth Games in 2018, Inclusive Tourism worked with two local government organisations to prepare Gold Coast tourism operators to meet the needs of athletes and visitors with disabilities during the Games.

Approach
Gold Coast City Council identified 10 local attractions and commissioned Inclusive Tourism Pty Ltd to develop accessible experience guides. Audits were conducted for attractions including Sea World, iFly, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, WhiteWater World, Paradise Jet Boating, Jellurgal, Night Quarter, Southern Cross 4WD Tours, Norwell Motorplex and Gold Coast Wake Park.

From these audits, Accessible Experience Guides were developed and made available to visitors and athletes attending the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and beyond.

Destination Gold Coast also commissioned Inclusive Tourism to deliver a range of inclusive projects with the Gold Coast tourism industry.

These projects included a mentoring program where Melissa James worked with each business to achieve the greatest level of accessibility possible. Each mentee received an access enhancement report and action plan. By supporting the operators to identify and implement simple changes, Melissa guided them to become more accessible, enabling them to identify and remove barriers to access.

Three workshops were also delivered to a wider group of Gold Coast tourism operators. Very positive outcomes where achieved including developing a higher level of disability awareness and become a more accessible and inclusive tourism business.

Quote
Feedback on the mentoring program and workshops were very positive and I would recommend Melissa James of Inclusive Tourism Pty Ltd to deliver programs to improve the standard of service provision for accessible tourism in the Australian tourism industry.  — Lenna Klintworth, Gold Coast Tourism Corporation (Formerly)