Accessible Travel: Good for Humans and Local Economies

Join us with John Sage founder and CEO of Sage Traveling and Accessible Travel Solutions to explore how inclusive design, empathetic training, and honest information transform guest experience and the bottom line. We dig into the three pillars of accessible travel—facilities, customer service, and information—and show how aligning all three removes risk, builds confidence, and drives bookings. You’ll hear why the cruise industry is ahead, how certification and staff training create repeatable excellence, and where hotels can catch up despite fragmented ownership. We also talk candidly about the industry’s blind spot: marketing. If 20% of the population never sees targeted messaging or detailed accessibility pages, brands are leaving money and trust on the table.

We bring it home with practical steps any destination can take without a huge budget: start with training. John highlights opportunities for meetings and events, the economic power of seniors traveling in shoulder seasons. Along the way, we spotlight Bentonville’s promising foundation—world-class museums, trail culture, and a growing commitment to clarity—and how better information can turn interest into confident trips.

A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.  

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Transcript

Setting The Stage: Who Needs Access

Beth Bobbitt 0:02

Welcome back to a new American Town. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, and today I'm speaking with John Sage, founder and CEO of Accessible Travel Solution and Sage Traveling. Welcome, John. Thanks for being here.

John Sage 0:16

Glad to be here and participate.

Beth Bobbitt 0:18

Yeah, so I want to start at the foundation here. For those listening that accessible travel is a brand new concept, can you give us a little bit of a grounding?

Founding Sage And ATS

John Sage 0:30

Sure. Essentially, according to the U.S. Census, 20% of the population in the United States has a disability of some type. According to the Center for Disease Control, is 26%. So it's one out of four, one out of five have some type of disability. Those can be various different types. We tend to think about wheelchair users, but it goes far beyond that. The way that the census divides it up is mobility, vision, hearing, neurodivergent, and allergy. And so when you think about the people that have one of those disabilities or a friend or a family member has one, it ends up being a very large percentage of the market.

Beth Bobbitt 1:10

Yeah, that's that's actually shocking and comforting that you exist and you're on it. Um I I want to hear a little bit about the history of the companies. I believe Sage was founded in 2009 and then Accessible Travel Solutions a few years later, or was it the reverse?

John Sage 1:28

Yeah, you're right. I founded Sage Traveling in 2009. Uh originally, when I was in my 20s, I had um traveled a lot in Europe with my wheelchair as uh uh my hobby. And when I would plan the trips, it would always take a huge amount of time to find accessibility information and make the reservations. But I was always still encountering accessibility surprises. And so after visiting a place, I said, well, I would have done it differently knowing what I know now, but now I know how to do some it for someone else. So founded Sage Traveling, uh, where we plan trips for people with disabilities going to Europe and beyond. And then a few years later, I founded Accessible Travel Solutions, which is our B2B brand. Basically, we were getting a lot of requests from travel agents that didn't have any accessible tour operator to book through. And so uh we now serve travel agents. We provide the majority of the accessible shore excursions in the cruise industry, and we provide accessibility consulting, training, and certification to travel businesses and destinations.

Beth Bobbitt 2:29

That is really helpful and makes total sense. I I'd love to hear some examples of these small details or everyday situations where someone might need accessible travel even temporarily.

The Three Pillars Framework

John Sage 2:40

Sure. I think the way that we tend to think about accessible travel is really through multiple lenses. So the first is the five different disability types. We need to address all of those if we want a destination to be accessible. We also want to think about all components of the journey. So whether it's the airport, the airline, the ground transportation, the accommodation, uh hotels or short-term rentals, attractions, convention center, if we're talking about meetings and events, restaurants, uh all these types of things come into account. And then the last lens that we think about it through is through a concept called the three pillars of accessible travel. And basically those are that somebody with a disability, when they're traveling, they need three things. And they need all three of these things. They need accessible facilities, uh, which are both physical facilities and digital facilities, digital technology. They need accessible customer service, which is handled through policies, processes, and training. And the last is accessibility information. And that is that people with disabilities, before they take the journey and the risk of leaving the comfort of their home and encountering accessibility barriers that cause them a lot of frustration, anxiety, they want to see detailed accessibility information so that they feel confident they're not going to have a really bad experience. And so destinations or travel businesses that address all three of those pillars for all parts of the journey, for all disability types are truly inclusive. And that's not necessarily an easy thing to do overnight, but it is uh an ambitious goal to aspire to.

Cruise Partnerships And Certification

Beth Bobbitt 4:20

Yeah. Gosh, my head is spinning with the possibilities. Uh, do you have maybe one or two stories that might illustrate how this has worked?

John Sage 4:30

Yeah, and I think one of the ways that that it's worked is is as we've had um partnerships with cruise lines. And I just got off a call with one of the cruise lines where we provide their accessible tours in over 50 ports. And so that ends up providing people with disabilities a great accessible vacation. And we handle the the tour design and and the reservations and the the emergency support and everything. Uh, and so that's been really on our product side where we've both I joined the World Travel and Tourism Council in 2019 and started to have the opportunity to speak to some of the top CEOs in in the travel business. And I was always asking my question, well, why hasn't the travel industry done better in accessibility? What's really holding them back? It's not the size of the opportunity, it's it's an enormous opportunity. So it's not that, it's not that we need more more studies or that we need more uh guidelines or more research. It was really that even in the biggest companies, they didn't have the accessibility knowledge and the accessibility tools to succeed. And so that's where we worked very hard in the last couple of years to develop Sage Certified, which is the world's first global accessible travel certification. And we've got some key industry players that that are supporting that. And then also our Sage Accessible Travel Academy, where we deliver training for hospitality staff, destination managers, event organizers, tour guide, travel agents, shore excursion managers, quite a few different people. But but through that, we're able to provide the education and the certification that a lot of businesses need. And so that's working really well in both the travel industry and the events industry.

The Missed Marketing Opportunity

Beth Bobbitt 6:11

Wow. You're you're working every angle here. And and it's the long game, right? Because I know that this does not happen overnight. Why do you often say that accessible travel is one of the most overlooked areas in the travel industry? You touched on this for sure.

John Sage 6:29

I mean, I I think what I would say is okay, we're talking about 20% of the population and their friends and and family. So it's not a small, if we were only talking about wheelchair users, then then okay, maybe it's not that big. But we're talking about all disability types. So it's this huge demographic. And what I'll say is think about it through this lynch. Think about is this population being marketed to? Let's just start with marketing. We won't even start with the operations, but marketing. You know, I'm a manual wheelchair user. I travel, I don't know, at least a dozen times a year. I'm CEO of two accessible travel companies. So my digital footprint basically screams this guy should be marketed to for accessible travel.

Beth Bobbitt 7:11

Right.

John Sage 7:12

And yet, and yet, I don't receive any digital ads on accessibility that say, hey, we're accessible. Here's why we're accessible. We want you to book with us. I don't see it from hotel chains, I don't see it from cruise lines, I don't see it from destinations. And so when you think about it that way, 20% of the population is not getting the marketing that they they want, that they they're thirsty for. They really, they really want this information. Then it's uh I think the only natural conclusion is to say, hey, this is a really overlooked segment.

Beth Bobbitt 7:44

Sure. And so that definitely leads into the next question about you've made these references about it's a human issue, but it's also an economic opportunity. So explain the connection there.

Accessibility As ROI

John Sage 7:57

Yeah, I mean, we definitely see that some businesses and destinations will move forward accessibility because of the human issue, particularly if they have somebody in their family member that has a disability or a close friend. Uh, but we're also seeing that there are, and it varies by the company type, by the business type. Some are really driven just by customer service. It's just they want a great guest experience, and that's enough for them. They just want to be able to serve all guests. But there are others that are really looking at ways to differentiate themselves versus their competitors, or they're looking if if it's a destination that has a lot of seasonality, they're looking to fill their uh empty rooms in the non-peak periods. And if you start to think about this, okay, who is available to travel in shoulder seasons and off seasons? Well, it's people that don't have kids in school, it's people that don't have Monday to Friday jobs. We're talking about retirees, is who we're talking about. And 50% of seniors have a disability. So I would argue the case that if you really want to affect your bottom line, you want to fill your rooms and have your visitors in the off season, and the very best demographic to target is people with disabilities who are seniors with time and money to travel.

Beth Bobbitt 9:14

What are the companies or industries that you feel like are are low-hanging fruit? Like that it's pretty easy to move the needle or restaurants or hotels or you know.

Industries Leading And Lagging

John Sage 9:25

I think the I'll say the cruise industry is ahead of the hotel industry for a few reasons. One is that the hotel industry is quite fragmented because the the franchise model. And so there is some uh there's not a consensus on whose responsibility accessibility is. Is it the hotel owner, is it the management company, is it the brand? Uh I think any of them, and I think all of them should feel accountability for it, but sometimes that doesn't happen. Um, whereas in the cruise industry, there are, you know, even the the I think the 80% of the cruise lines, 80% of the cruise industry is just five companies, something like that. And something like 90% of all cruise ships are built by three shipyards. And and the cruise lines all own their own ships. There is no franchising. So what ends up happening is if a cruise line wants to succeed economically in this market, they can build it into their ship. And once it goes into one ship, the shipyard repeats it everywhere for all super future ships. And so that's resulted in the cruising industry being very accessible. But we also see that destinations who prioritize accessibility see uh an ROI. We're really happy to work with with Bentonville in this case because there is a an interest to differentiate and tap into a market that is overlooked. And so uh I think the destinations absolutely can succeed here when they devote some resources to it. If if there's no resources devoted to it, it's probably not going to go very far.

Practical Steps For Communities

Beth Bobbitt 11:04

Right. Yeah, and I want to touch on Bentonville in a minute, but I'd love to hear just some general practical steps that communities can take to better serve travelers of all abilities without a massive budget, because we know that that is a barrier.

John Sage 11:19

Yeah, and I I think uh one of the the things is just to understand where what the current situation is. So, how accessible is your your destination? That's so that's uh one of the things that that we see destinations and businesses want to do is doing an accessibility assessment. The other is accessibility training. Often that's even the first step because there's usually a training budget and there may not be an accessibility assessment budget. So training is one of the lowest hanging fruit that we think can be a great first step. And that's why we developed our our accessible travel academy. But then ultimately, uh after the training and the assessment to sort of understand and educate, then we need to say, okay, well, which of the locations in the destination are accessible and have we properly documented those and conveyed those? And that would be the sort of the phase two. And then afterwards, it's okay, how do we market these? And so it can be a phased approach, although we have seen destinations that just commit to go all in and they do the assessment and the training for a bunch of their hotels, attractions, restaurants. We do a big package there, or we see that some destinations may not initially focus on tourism. Some of them will focus on uh meetings and events. And so they'll start with their convention center and the surrounding hotels and some evening venues. So there's multiple ways to get started. I think often the first step is the most difficult step. Once there's a little bit of momentum and people inside the organization get excited about it, because it is something to get excited about. I mean, you're you're making the world accessible for people who want to do it. So it's very rewarding work is just getting that first step going.

Beth Bobbitt 13:05

So so how are we doing in Bentonville? You it sounds like we are assessing the situation right now. Where are things?

John Sage 13:12

Correct, correct. So we're really excited to work with Bentonville. I was able to actually visit only for a single day on the way home from a conference. And I I wish I could have stayed longer. It was uh it was just a beautiful little uh little community. In particular, I my big exercise hobby is riding my hand cycle and hearing about all the the cycling trails really got me excited. So I definitely do want to come back at some point in the future to to ride some of those trails. But while I was there, I was able to visit Crystal Bridges Museum, which was just world class, and see the the downtown area and stay in one of the new hotels. And and it was just it was just a great destination for either a weekend getaway or or a longer trip. And I think there are uh the accessibility is is certainly good enough to be successful. It's not like it's a ancient medieval town on top of a hilltop. I've run into those in Europe. It's not that. So there's a a lot of really good accessibility features, but uh I think what we want to ultimately help visit Bentonville with is conveying that accessibility information so that people feel comfortable coming.

Momentum And A Unified Ecosystem

Beth Bobbitt 14:28

Right, right. Well, I can't wait to learn what you learn. And um, one last question before we close. What gives you hope for the future of accessible travel?

John Sage 14:38

Yeah, I I think I think there's really a lot of momentum. I think there's a lot of interest. Um, one of the things that I've recognized is we help a lot of different associations in travel on their accessibility initiatives. So we help the World Travel and Tourism Council and the Global Business Travel Association and Events Industry Council and CLIA for the cruise lines and hotel associations and a lot of a lot of different associations. And they haven't really been communicating with each other on accessibility. They all issue their own accessibility guidelines for their members. And so we're working on bridging that gap. We feel that there's a way to expand communication, ensure alignment, and change the ecosystem so that accessibility investments become much more profitable. So that's something sort of revolutionary that we're working on. And we have some very influential key stakeholders in the industry that that support this idea. And I feel that there will be more accessibility progress made in the next three years than in the last 30 as a result of that.

Beth Bobbitt 15:43

I like your optimism. This is amazing work that you're doing. Thank you, and thank you for your time today.

John Sage 15:49

Absolutely glad to be here.

Beth Bobbitt 15:51

Don't forget, Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay, and what's going on in our new American Town. Check out the show notes to follow us on social, sign up for the newsletter, and go to the website at visitbentonville .com. Thanks for listening.