Introduction

Tourism is a highly networked industry dependant on cooperation and co-opetition (collaboration and competition) (Buhalis, 2003). The intense heterogeneity that characterises tourism is mainly due to the fact that many other industries and economical sectors, such as transportation, accommodation and sports play a critical role in the production process. There have been more than 30 industrial components identified that serve travellers (Sheldon, 1997). When accessibility is involved, all these components gain a new significance, making accessible tourism even more complicated to conceptualise and operationalise, because all these components need to be accessible for a journey to be accomplished (Darcy, 1998; Darcy & Daruwalla, 1999; Israeli & Mansfeld, 2003).

The dissemination of high quality, accurate, truthful and detailed information is key to creating travel opportunities for disabled persons (Cavinato & Cuckovich, 1992). However, the provision of specialised and detailed information tends to be inadequate, the higher the level of accessibility requirements (Miller & Kirk, 2002). Stakeholders involved in accessible tourism can be classified as mainstream, mixed and specialised, according to the detail of information provision.

This chapter elaborates on the stakeholders of accessible tourism, to allow for a better understanding of the nature and processes involved in the implementation and realisation of accessible tourism. The principal stakeholder parties are identified, and their interests and constraints in participating in accessible tourism are specified. The analysis of the impact on their products and customer base, strategies, and business models when participating in accessible tourism, reveals how each contribution is essential to sustain accessible tourism. Finally, an example of the classification for mainstream, mixed and specialised service providers for the disabled market provides the reader with an insight of the current market composition.