Greece could expand its tourism market and attract more visitors throughout the year by improving accessibility across hotels, restaurants, museums and other tourism services, according to Chryssella Lagaria, co-founder and chief executive of Black Light, who says businesses must look beyond physical infrastructure to deliver inclusive experiences for travellers with disabilities.
Speaking to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) on the sidelines of Wise Greece’s The Future of Food, Tourism and Experiences conference, Lagaria highlighted the need for tourism businesses to address the practical barriers that people with disabilities continue to face when travelling.
Lagaria, who was born blind, works with businesses to improve their services for blind consumers. She draws on the direct experiences of people with disabilities to help companies design more accessible services and improve their everyday operations.
“Accessibility must be addressed horizontally,” she said, emphasising that it involves far more than installing a ramp or providing a specially adapted hotel room.
Instead, businesses must consider the entire visitor experience, from researching destinations and making bookings to travelling, staying at accommodation, visiting attractions and dining out.
From infrastructure to a complete visitor experience
Lagaria argues that businesses can improve accessibility through relatively simple measures that do not necessarily require major investment.
Adding subtitles to promotional videos, describing images on social media so blind users can understand their content, and training staff are among the practical steps businesses can take.
Restaurants and hotels can also improve communication with deaf customers by using speech-to-text applications. Appropriate staff training can help employees communicate more effectively with customers who have different accessibility requirements.
Physical infrastructure remains equally important. Even a luxury hotel with specially adapted rooms may have significant shortcomings in other areas of its premises.
A balcony that does not provide enough space for a wheelchair user to move comfortably, or a bathroom that does not allow safe and independent use, can undermine a visitor’s experience despite the property’s other amenities.
Lagaria also sees an opportunity for smaller tourism businesses to incorporate accessibility into their operations from the outset. Designing a new accommodation facility or renovating an existing property allows owners to integrate accessible features from the beginning rather than making costly adjustments later.
Genuine accessibility must work in practice
One of the key challenges Lagaria identifies is the gap between a property being advertised as accessible and the facilities it actually offers.
Travellers with mobility disabilities often need to contact hotels directly before booking to establish whether they can use the bathroom safely, manoeuvre their wheelchairs around the rooms and access balconies and communal areas.
Travellers with visual impairments, meanwhile, rely heavily on available information, photographs and reviews from previous guests. However, these resources do not always provide enough detail to determine whether a property can meet their needs.
Lagaria stresses that people with disabilities must participate in the assessment and design of tourism services. Their involvement helps businesses develop solutions that address genuine requirements rather than simply meeting formal specifications.
Greece has introduced a certification system for tourism businesses covering accessibility. The framework includes specialised training for staff who interact with customers.
Implementing such initiatives represents a step towards better services, but the broader objective is to ensure that accessibility remains consistent throughout the visitor experience.
Improving access to museums, restaurants and cultural attractions
Cultural venues also have opportunities to improve their services. Providing accessible exhibits in selected areas of a museum does not guarantee an inclusive experience if other aspects of the visit remain inaccessible.
For visitors with visual impairments, information should not rely exclusively on Braille signs. Not everyone who has lost their sight knows how to read Braille, Lagaria points out.
Accessible digital guides and information provided through QR codes can offer alternatives, provided businesses design these tools to meet users’ actual needs.
Restaurants face similar challenges. Accessibility involves more than providing an entrance that customers with disabilities can use. It also includes communicating with staff, accessing menu information and receiving appropriate service throughout a meal.
Lagaria says staff training can make a meaningful difference through straightforward communication and customer service practices.
The goal is to allow customers with disabilities to enjoy the same experience as other visitors without having to explain their needs repeatedly.
She also cautions against treating people with disabilities as a single group with uniform preferences. Like other travellers, they have different interests and may choose to visit museums, explore nature, take guided tours, enjoy local cuisine or go swimming.
Tourism businesses should therefore focus on giving every visitor the freedom to choose how they spend their time.
A significant economic opportunity for Greek tourism
Accessibility also presents an economic opportunity beyond its role in social inclusion.
According to the European Commission, approximately 87 million people in the European Union have some form of disability, highlighting the size of the potential market for accessible tourism services.
The Commission has identified accessible tourism as an opportunity to broaden demand, encourage travel outside peak periods and help address seasonality. The potential customer base extends beyond travellers with disabilities themselves, as their companions and families also influence travel decisions.
For Greece, where tourism accounts for a substantial share of economic activity, improving accessibility could help businesses reach more customers while raising service quality and strengthening destinations’ ability to welcome a wider range of visitors.
Lagaria argues that training, consultancy and changes in business attitudes can provide a starting point for meaningful improvements.
Businesses should not view accessibility solely as an additional expense, she says, but as an integral part of designing services for a broader audience.
Greece’s next step is to move beyond isolated improvements towards a comprehensive approach that combines accessible infrastructure, reliable information, digital access and appropriately trained staff.
Ultimately, accessible tourism means more than allowing someone to enter a building. It means enabling every visitor to participate fully in the travel experience.
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