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This research focuses on assistance dogs within the travel and tourism sector, with particular attention to their role in enhancing accessibility for tourists with disabilities. It examines the travel behaviour of people with disabilities who have an assistance dog, the barriers and constraints to tourism, and the implications for assistance dog welfare.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

This research relates to the following SDGs

 

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Research summary

Accessible tourism, with its core values of independence, equity and dignity, aims to cater to a full range of consumers (people with disabilities, ageing populations, and cross-generational families) through the removal or mitigation of attitudinal, informational and physical barriers. However, according to the European Commission, tourists with assistance dogs are amongst the least catered for segment of the EU accessible tourism market. 

Assistance dogs undergo extensive training to carry out a range of tasks and actions that support a person with a disability or chronic medical condition to achieve greater independence. This might include guiding a person with vision impairment around obstacles, alerting someone with epilepsy about an oncoming medical episode, or calming an autistic person with heightened anxiety. As a result, assistance dogs are often recognised within reasonable accommodation, which is part of anti-discrimination legislation intended to support modifications or adjustments that allow people with disabilities to have similar opportunities for work, services, and other aspects of life.

It is well-established that assistance dogs contribute to overall wellbeing and quality of life, improve social interactions in public settings, and increase mobility for people with disabilities within their local communities. However, much less is known about travel and tourism outside of their home environment. 

In working with Assistance Dogs UK and Guide Dogs for the Blind, this project aimed to understand the following dimensions of more-than-human accessible tourism:

• Investigate the travel behaviour of assistance dog owners (decision-making, confidence and experiences)
• Identify barriers and constraints to tourism
• Identify best practice in the industry
• Contribute to knowledge exchange with key charities and policymakers

Research findings

The findings suggest that assistance dogs have a positive influence on travel outside of local communities for tourism and leisure purposes. Many take domestic tourism trips with their assistance dog, but very few travel with their assistance dog on international tourism trips. While there are high levels of confidence in the assistance dog to do its work in new environments, there was reduced confidence in caring for the dog and meeting its welfare needs when travelling. 

There are many constraints and barriers identified, which largely relate to service experiences. These findings have been used by Guide Dogs to inform their training and outreach programmes: 

• Service refusal – While taxis are the most common form of transport used, they also evoke the lowest level of confidence in customer service, as refusals to accept an assistance dog are common. This is despite that denial of an assistance dog is discrimination in most countries.
• Service access – Travelling with an assistance dog often results in a different service experience to other customers, including extra procedures for which staff demonstrate inadequate training.
• Unequal access – There is a tendency to prioritise wheelchair users over other persons with disabilities resulting in unequal access to accessibility support.
• Inconsistent processes – Within each travel sector, such as airlines, each company will have its own process for booking an assistant dog resulting in a new procedure to learn. 

However, the role of the human-assistance dog relationship in tourism experiences and decision-making was an unanticipated issue of particular significance. The bond between human and dog is a special one, described more as a partnership. As a result, just the presence of the dog can have a positive effect on the person’s confidence in new places and reduce their anxiety of travelling. Yet, concern for the dog’s wellbeing and welfare is a major factor in destination choice, with weather and cultural perceptions of dogs especially taken into consideration. 

While it already known that interpersonal relationships can have an important impact on travel behaviour, this research suggests that non-human relationships should be considered in addition to human ones. 

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