How accessibility shapes brand’s experience of guests with disabilities
(R2024-122670)

AUTHORS

João Tiago Lourenço, Universidade Europeia; Raquel Soares, Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação (UNIDCOM/IADE); Ana Ramires, Universidade Europeia, IPAM, Porto

ABSTRACT

As guests with disabilities are entitled to travel with accessibilities and freely, this research aims to study the different perceptions of guests with and without disabilities towards hospitality brands. Using a quantitative approach through a survey, the preliminary results show that between guests with and without disabilities, the brands’ perceived functional and experiential values are significantly different whereas the results are different to the Brand Attachment and Purchase Intention. This study contributes to a better understanding of how consumers are perceiving the hotel brands’ efforts to offer accessibilities to the consumer with disabilities and to give managerial boards contributes to encourage decisions towards a more accessible tourism.