Adventures for all should be the way

The travel industry is potentially missing out on tapping into the Next Big Thing: travel therapy.

We’re not talking about wellness resorts and yoga retreats, though they can be a bit part of it, but travel experiences tailored to the needs of those living with physical and mental disabilities.

These may be more prevalent due to an aging population, but it’s not just older travellers who experience such conditions. That’s why any strategy the travel and hospitality industries adopt must consider diverse demographics.

Yet it’s still an under-researched and under-resourced area.

“Absolutely,” says Edith Cowan University’s Dr Jun Wen. “In the past, the whole industry has focused more on the ‘normal’ tourist rather than that for vulnerable populations. And we need to rethink that. We need to look at the whole picture and the importance of travel as therapy for those with suboptimal health.”

Dr Wen is co-author of Travel medicine in hospitality: An interdisciplinary perspective, recently published in the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

Though the paper largely focuses on the “missing link between hospitality and science” and the particular needs of hotel guests with mental disorders, the findings can be applied more broadly.

“Tourism needs to be able to accommodate vulnerable travellers such as these for the industry’s survival — but also because health is important and as our previous work has shown, tourism can help support health,” says Dr Wen.

“Promoting Australia as a vulnerability-friendly tourism destination, for example: that’s a very cool idea.”

Dr Wen outlines various initiatives that could make places like Australia more attractive for vulnerable people.

This includes not just changes in the hospitality, entertainment, retail and transport services but in the way caregivers are accommodated as travel essentials, if you will.

Part of the battle is (re)education and training.

“Staff and stakeholders need training to be made aware of vulnerable travellers’ needs and demands,” Dr Wen says.

“This can include developing manuals to standardise services for vulnerable travellers, enhancing accessible infrastructure and equipping professional emergency and care facilities appropriately, such as with first-aid tools.

“The industry can also customise services for different traveller segments, such as people with dementia, depression or anxiety.”

Dr Wen also advocates a renewed focus on technology for those who are unable to travel at all.

“Not everyone can take physical trips,” he says.

“The tourism industry should develop virtual products that enable all travellers to be present in a destination and to enjoy fun and health-related benefits.”

Although Dr Wen and his colleagues haven’t specifically addressed this, it’s clear that such virtual travel experiences should be leveraging video game technology and adapting it for for the virtual traveller with special needs.

After all, video games are already doing the job: building entire, if often fictional, worlds and allowing you to travel through them with a marked degree of autonomy.

Some good examples of existing travel video games are Beyond Blue, Middle East, Colorado — Horizon Zero Dawn and any number of flight simulators.

Still, nothing beats the real thing, and it’s hoped that some of the concepts and recommendations of Dr Wen and his co-authors will be taken up before too long.

Focus: mental health

According to a report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which draws together the findings of a number of studies, mental health is fundamental to your overall health and wellbeing.

It also mentions that although “a mental illness can be defined as ‘a clinically diagnosable disorder that significantly interferes with a person’s cognitive emotional or social abilities’,” while adding “a person does not need to meet the criteria for a mental illness or mental disorder to be negatively affected by their mental health.”

In other words, your environment and social relationships can have an impact on the mental health of an otherwise healthy individual.

Which, when it comes to stress, anxiety and mental exhaustion is what holidays are usually all about: taking time off to relax, recharge and heal.

For those with more serious mental issues, the stakes are higher. We’ve listed the benefits of travel therapy below. But there are also things to watch out for. For example, the Smartraveller website mentions some potential triggers for those travelling with a mental health condition, including separation from friends and family, culture shock, change of routine and refilling medications.

Benefits of travel for those with physical or mental disabilities

• Providing new experiences: these foster improved cognitive function and a more integrated, expanded sense of the world.
• Increasing social interaction: meeting new people from different cultures and making new friends are the enemies of social isolation and depression.
• Improving physical health: hiking, cycling, swimming and more tailored experiences in health resorts and retreats, not to mention fresh, clean air at higher altitudes and “forest bathing”, can lead to more lasting exercise habits.
• Developing self-confidence and independence: whether travelling solo, with a caregiver or in a group, the experience not just of engaging with the world but of navigating your way through possible logistical hurdles is not only invigorating but inculcates a real sense of agency and self-worth.
• Increasing visibility: the more people living with physical and mental disabilities who are out in the world, the more the world sees and appreciates them as equals and as an important part of society whose needs matter.

WORLD AUTISM AWARENESS

Today is the start of Autism Acceptance Month — and World Autism Awareness Day is tomorrow, April 2.

Autism Acceptance Month aims to highlight the increasing number of individuals identified with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the impacts on families and support services. autismawareness.com.au

One in 44 children and one in 45 adults are recognised to be on the autism spectrum. autismspeaks.org

The Walk for Autism Challenge, which started on March 25, wraps up today, April 1. walkforautism.org.au

The Autism Association of WA offers lots of information, activities and support. autism.org.au

For more information on travelling with a mental health condition, see smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/health/mental-health