Pembrokeshire is an inspiring place and to ensure everyone has access to its natural coastal beauty and experiences, Visit Pembrokeshire is stepping up its commitment to inclusivity with the launch of a dedicated portal on its website https://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/open-to-all
Part of a destination initiative called Open to All, the portal will feature a directory of businesses and organisations across Pembrokeshire offering services for those who face barriers to travel and tourism. It will include, for example, information about Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s all-terrain equipment and easy-to-hire mobility trikes and beach wheelchairs.
Plus, details of accommodation providers offering wheelchair equipped rooms, the location of adaptive toilet facilities, information about those businesses with hearing loop facilities or sign language trained staff. In short, it will reference those Pembrokeshire businesses and organisations – from coastal foragers to yoga providers – featuring inclusive elements within their offering.
Providing positive examples in action, the case study section will highlight specific operators such as North Pembrokeshire based Havard Riding Stables, whooffer lessons for all abilities. Also Windswept, the Dale-based paddleboarding-for-all company who provide individual as well as family and group sessions with adaptive kit and hoist facilities too. Plus, Blue Horizons, a surf school with an operation at Broadhaven Beach, is one of the only surf instruction schools to offer itself exclusively to those with disabilities and their families.
Not just limited to disability specialists, other case studies will include businesses who, just by implementing small measures, have made a difference to visitors with extra needs. Celtic Deep, for example, a marine conservation and wildlife adventure company, tailors its experiences by offering small group sessions and minimising walking distances to its activities. While bushcraft expert Buzzard Chris Bushcraft offers a range of courses that can be tailored to meet specific needs.
As well as being useful for visitors, it is hoped this case study section will inspire other Pembrokeshire operators to follow suit. To this end, providing practical help to do so, there will be a Resource Hub, featuring free education and support tools. This section will include suggestions on how small tweaks to a business’s website, such as enlarging the font and tailoring its messages on its social media, can make a difference to a visitor’s experience.
Links to free training opportunities offering a diverse range of sessions from British Sign Language to cultural awareness and how to help those with partial autism is also included. These will be supplemented with information about forums and in-person meet ups such as beach days, designed to encourage businesses to network and share ideas about best practice.
While a positive step, Visit Pembrokeshire understands that the launch of the website is very much part of an ongoing cultural change. Says Emma Thornton, Chief Executive of Visit Pembrokeshire “The initial work conducted by the Open to All team alerted us to reports that a lack of accessibility provision was in fact discouraging potential visitors.
“To turn this around, we initially began to highlight those organisations where accessible provision was already central to their offer, then used them as inspiration to other businesses to instil changes.
“We’re now working with businesses across Pembrokeshire, helping them, where they can, to make changes and to tailor their own accessible offer; and we’re already seeing positive results. Some businesses for example have created new and bespoke access guides with accompanying videos. Others have added detailed information to their website about their inclusive offer for potential visitors to view. These positive tweaks demonstrate to potential guests that their needs are being taken into consideration. It says, ‘we’re listening,’ empowering them to feel confident in booking and visiting us.”
She continues “Alongside this social inclusivity perspective, financially it makes sense too. Recent figures from the charity Scope suggest that the Purple Pound is worth over £249 billion annually, so ignoring this is not only doing a disservice to disabled visitors, but commercially to us as a destination too”.
Open to All Project Manager, Abi Marriott, adds, “2024 was a busy and successful year gearing up to launch the new Open To All Resource Hub. Somewhat of a project legacy, this new website brings together the multiple strands of our work, offering access to business case study examples, training materials, toolkit and templates, plus a place where people can connect for ongoing specialist advice. It will also feature an inclusive media library for businesses to enrich their own marketing materials.
We hope it will be an extremely useful resource for both visitors and businesses alike, adapting and expanding as we continue on our path to creating a more inclusive destination that is truly ‘Open to All’”.
