Ninety-five per cent of disabled people check accessibility before going somewhere new, according to AccessAble’s Accessibility and You survey for 2023/24, which VisitBritain cites in its guidance for tourism businesses. The same survey found that 77% had not visited a venue at all because they could not find out about its accessibility. For a holiday park, that second number is the one to worry about. It describes bookings that never happen, and nobody on reception ever hears about them.
A bigger share of your guests than it might look
VisitBritain’s figures for 2024 put domestic overnight trips in England taken by someone with an impairment, or by a group that includes someone with one, at 20.8 million. That was 23% of all domestic overnight trips, with £5.8bn of spending attached. Those trips also ran a little longer than average: 3.2 nights against 2.9 nights overall.
The make-up of that group matters as much as its size. Trips involving a wheelchair user accounted for 6% of the total. Far more involved a mobility impairment that does not need a wheelchair (41%), a mental health condition (39%), or a cognitive, social or behavioural condition (26%). The categories overlap, since one trip can involve more than one person and more than one need. The practical point is that accessibility on a park is not only a question of ramps. A guest who tires on a long walk wants to know how far the pitch is from the toilet block. A guest who finds unfamiliar places hard may want to see the layout before they come.
The gap is partly information, not only facilities
The Participation Survey for 2024/25, also quoted by VisitBritain, found that 45% of disabled adults in England had not taken an overnight holiday in England in the previous twelve months, compared with 34% of non-disabled adults. The survey does not say why, and cost, health and plenty of other reasons will play a part. VisitBritain’s own estimate is that removing barriers, through better accessibility provision and cost, could generate extra trips worth £1bn, lifting estimated annual spending by this group in England from £14.6bn to £15.6bn.
Some of that gap is about facilities a park either has or does not. Some of it is simpler. In the AccessAble survey, 87% expected accessibility information to be on a venue’s website, and 96% said having it in advance would make them more likely to visit. A park with a good accessible shower block, a level route to the clubhouse and parking by the reception door can still lose the booking if none of that can be found before someone books.
Put the layout where the planning happens
VisitBritain describes the most useful access information as following the route a visitor typically takes: arriving, getting in and getting around. On a holiday park, that route is the map. Where the car park sits relative to reception. Which pitches are nearest the facilities. Whether the path down to the beach is a slope or a flight of steps.
A map shared on your website and in the booking confirmation lets a guest answer those questions at home, in their own time, rather than on arrival. If the accessible toilets, level routes and blue badge parking are marked as their own pins, each with a photo and a line of honest detail, the map does part of the job an access statement does. It helps everyone else as well: the family with a pushchair, the grandparent who would rather not walk far, the guest who arrives after dark. The interactive maps we build can be shared as a link, embedded on a park’s own site and printed as a QR code, so the same information is there before the trip and during it.
A map is not an access guide, though. It will not give door widths, the turning space in a shower room or the height of the reception counter, and it should not pretend to. VisitBritain points businesses towards Detailed Access Guides for that level of detail, with measurements and photographs. A map that links to one is better than a map that tries to replace it.
What these figures do not tell you
The trip and spending figures cover all tourism in England, not holiday parks specifically, and VisitBritain notes that changes in survey method mean the current numbers cannot be compared with earlier years. The AccessAble survey reflects the people who chose to answer it. None of this predicts how many of your own guests have access needs.
What it does suggest is that a good number of them will look before they book, and that when they cannot find the answer, a meaningful share go elsewhere. The quickest test is the one those guests run themselves: open your website as if you walk with a stick, and time how long it takes to find out how far the nearest toilet is from a pitch.
