Organiser of the event juggles fund constraint and logistical issues to make the conference a success, befitting its theme, Tourism for All
The biennial conference with the theme Tourism for All took place in Malaysia last December, gathering 26 local and international organisations for the cause.
According to the 5th International Conference on Accessible Tourism, removing the barriers and making travelling more accessible for the elderly and the disabled will increase tourism revenue for destinations and provide employment opportunities for local communities.
Said Sia Siew Chin, founder of Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled, the organiser of the event: “We wanted to provide an opportunity for more local participation (of the event), and to raise awareness among the tourism authorities of accessibility issues in Malaysia, which could in turn bring about positive changes in the future.
“It was also a very important conference, as the resolutions passed would be taken back by the international delegates to their respective countries and presented to their governments with the intention of promoting accessible tourism.”
The conference was organised in Petaling Jaya with support of the city council, which provided complimentary use of the Civic Centre as the conference venue, along with free PA system, outdoor canopies, a sponsored lunch and temporary ramps built specially to cater to the needs of the disabled attendees.
Sia said: “We convinced the council to support our cause by showing them the World Health Organisation Report 2011, which stated that about 15 per cent of the world’s population has a disability, more than one billion people have special needs worldwide, and 80 per cent live in developing countries.
“We also pointed out that this is a new segment of tourism that can increase tourist arrivals, provide business opportunities to the locals and contribute to yield.”
A challenge faced by the organiser was having to work with a small budget.
Sia said: “We needed RM400,000 (US$114,802) to organise this conference but we raised less than half that amount through sponsorships and registration fees. We also cut down on printed materials for publicity purposes, relying on Facebook, our website and email marketing.
“We also relied on volunteers to help with tasks like registration, packing of conference materials, distribution of food and drinks, video recording and photograph-taking.”
On hindsight, Sia said: “We should have been more detailed in our briefings for volunteers because the duties were very new to some of them. There was only one briefing prior to the event, and not all volunteers had attended.” But a briefing was given at the end of each day on the following day’s programmes and duties.
Another challenge was logistical, given that some overseas delegates gave their flight details at the 11th hour, thus those in charge of organising transport had to work within a short time frame to get the transfer services organised.
“This was our first time organising an international conference of this nature. Our full-time staff had to take on added responsibilities to organise this conference.”
The four-day event also included a two-kilometre walk for delegates to understand the barriers the disabled face on a daily basis, as well as a visit to two popular tourism venues, Taman Aman Park and KL Heritage Walk trail, where an access audit on the “friendliness” of the locations for people with disabilities was conducted.
Delegate Patrick Ang, director of want2travel, was pleased with the conference: “The organiser worked hard to contribute to the success of this conference, and managed to get support from the government. The transportation used to ferry delegates around was also well arranged.”
Another participant, Scott Rains, an active promoter of inclusive tourism, said: “The attendance was better than I had expected. I am pleased by the number of attendees and their enthusiasm.”
Event 5th International Conference on Accessible Tourism
Organiser Beautiful Gate Foundation for the Disabled
Date December 4-7, 2014
Venue Civic Centre, Petaling Jaya
No of attendees 260 pax from 26 countries
Challenges A small budget, working with fresh volunteers and last-minute arrangement of transfers
