Specialcare Holidays, India’s 1st accessible travel company by a disabled entrepreneur

Specialcare Holidays, based in Kochi in Kerala, calls itself India’s first holiday company for people with disabilities run by a disabled person. The company is set to make its launch this week!

The founder and managing director of Specialcare Holidays is Simon George. George says that the first group of tourists, is made up of about 150 disabled people from various parts of south India. The group will take a day-long houseboat cruise in Alappuzha on Saturday.

52-year-old George is paralyzed from the waist down and has been using a wheelchair for over three decades.

Thanks to his persistent efforts, the Department of Tourism in Kerala has agreed to introduce Accessible Tourism as a special service to promote tourism in the state.

George says he has been fighting all his life to promote the cause of accessible tourism. He called it a shame that Kerala has done so little for disabled tourists even though tourism makes up for 12% of the state’s GDP.

Accessible tourism begins with providing disabled visitors with accessible vehicles, specially-trained co-ordinators and tour guides, doctors and nursing staff, and accessible equipment.

Accessible equipment included ramps, automated ramps, wheelchairs, motorised wheelchairs, lifts-onto-vehicles, accessible washrooms and toilets, Braille and sign language-scripted materials and equipment for the blind and hearing impaired at all the tourists visit. This means airports, bus stations, hotels and at tourist destinations.

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