Introduction

This chapter is based on a travel guide which was first published in Australia in 1995, Easy Access Australia – A Travel Guide to Australia (Cameron, 1995, 2000). Easy Access Australia (EAA) reflects an individual's need for accessible information during the planning stage and while travelling. The author is a wheelchair user following a swimming accident in 1976. Travelling in Europe, he met one of the Rough Guide's founders and suggested that an access guide to the UK be written. The Rough Guides did not pick up the idea, but EAA was born. The chapter also draws on developments in accessible tourism in the United Kingdom and Europe and several research projects which occurred in Australia during the years 2007 and 2008, covering accessible accommodation (Darcy, 2008; Darcy & Cameron, 2008), business cases for accessible tourism (Darcy et al. , 2010; Darcy et al. , 2008b), delivering access information about tourism destinations and experiences within a defined precinct of Sydney, Australia. What follows is a discussion of the number of issues that arise in accessible tourism which need to be addressed when designing, researching, writing and publishing a travel guide aimed at meeting the needs of travellers requiring access.

What is a Travel Guide?

Travel guides come in many forms, from brief pamphlets to 1000-page or more documents, TV shows, radio programmes, internet sites and Blogs. They can seek to provide specific information, or to provide general information. Travel guides, like Lonely Planet (2008), Rough Guide (2008), Let's Go (2008), Frommers (2009) and many more, are brands which include a number of titles catering for specific interests; for example Lonely Planet publishes guides for women travellers, families and so on.

Other guides focus on specific, highly specialised topics such as BandBs, Gites in France, travelling with animals, history, cuisine, arts, architecture, music ... the list goes on.