A systematic literature review on tourist experience of people with disabilities in the hospitality and tourism sector

Abstract

The issue of tourist experience for disabled travelers has been given little attention compared to that given to able-bodied persons. This study assessed a systematic review of 13 peer-reviewed scholarly articles on the tourist experience of disabled travelers available on Google Scholar. Quantitative analysis of the literature was performed using an Excel spreadsheet. The results indicated that a significant proportion of articles published focused on addressing tourists’ overall past experience, while few have focused on specific contexts. Mobility impaired visitors especially wheelchair users were mainly covered. Most of the studies were conducted in Portugal, New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia and a few were done in countries such as the UK, Spain, and China. In those studies, semi-structured in-depth interview and purposive sampling strategies were mainly employed. Over 90% of all the published works were qualitative in nature and published in journals of hospitality and tourism management. The review concludes with the practical implications of the study as well as the future research agenda.