Attitude change towards guests with disabilities: Reflections From Tourism Students

People with disabilities are still growing as a consumer niche in the tourism industry. Some indicators suggest that the market share of disabled tourism is worth approximately 117 billion USD per annum. The number of people with disabilities within the EU population is 27 million and the tourism industry still has not found a coordinated way to serve that population. Tourism schools have not initiated any specialized programs for their students for the requirement of tourists with disabilities. In our experiment, it was shown that the process of changing perception of tourism students towards people with disabilities was relatively simple. According to our experiment, a range of topics on the disabled have the potential to improve attitudes of students towards people with disabilities as tourists.

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► The nonverbal semantic differential was used to measure attitudes towards people with disabilities.
► The experimental design was used. An independent variable was the disability-based instruction.
► The changes in the approach towards people with disabilities were measured upon an independent variable.
► After introducing the independent variable statistically significant changes occurred.
► A short educational program can effectively change students’ attitude towards people with disabilities in a positive way.