Abstract:
The market of tourists with disabilities consists
of a sizeable percentage of total tourism and is rapidly
growing globally but little is known about tour guides
experiences with them. These tourists with disabilities
seem to have less holiday offers thereby reducing the
frequency of tour guide encounters with them. While
most tourism literature supports tour guides and their
contribution to tourist experience, very little research is
done in developing countries to show experiences of tour
guides with tourists with disabilities. There is a knowl
edge gap of how the interactions between the guide and
tourists with disabilities participating in the guided
tours influence the tour guides’ experience. Using face
to face interviews and focus group discussions with tour
guides the study sought to establish people with dis
abilities types of holidays, concerns they raise during
tours and challenges encountered by tour guides when
touring with PwD. Non-probability, namely conveni
ence and judgemental sampling methods were followed
to pick tour guides from museums and national parks.
Study results revealed the activities that tour guides are
offering people with disabilities, guides’ own choice of
activities for tourists with disabilities and the challenges
faced by tour guides in the provision of those activities.
The study concludes that the guiding industry has inad
equate information about tourists with disabilities and
thus is failing to fully serve the market. Lastly the study
provides a set of recommendations that can be used by
the tour guiding industry in order to effectively serve the
market of tourists with disabilities.
