Thread: Cruise industry urged to adapt for 'special needs'

Interesting article coming out of the Cruise Trade Conference in Miami regarding the disabled travelers and the potential maket they bring to the industry. Cruise industry urged to adapt for 'special needs' | floridatoday.com | FLORIDA TODAY

Thanks for the article, Mike. Here it is in it's entirety.

Cruise industry urged to adapt for 'special needs'

BY KEILANI BEST • FLORIDA TODAY • March 16, 2010

MIAMI — Spending more than $13 billion a year on travel, people with special needs or disabilities represent an increasingly important segment for the cruise industry.

And as the population ages, and the definition of what constitutes a "special need" broadens -- it can range from senior citizens who simply struggle to walk the new class of mega-cruise ships to parents who travel with young children and need cribs and other accommodations -- any limitations on travel could affect the bottom line of cruise operators, said Andrew Garnett, president and CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based Special Needs Group, Inc., which provides scooters, oxygen, cribs, beach wheelchairs and other equipment to eight cruise lines, including Port Canaveral tenants Royal Caribbean, Disney and Carnival.

"This is a tremendous market," Garnett said Monday in a speech on the opening day of the Cruise Shipping Miami conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center. "When you think of people who are traveling, and you have a group of 10 people going, if one person needs oxygen and can't go, the whole family can't go."

According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of people 65 and older is expected to comprise nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population by 2015. This "silver segment," as economists describe it, has the time and resources to travel but may not do so because of special needs relating to hearing loss, diminished vision, limited mobility, breathing problems or other consequences of aging.

Now add families to the mix.
"There are lots of families at Port Canaveral that go to Disney World, then go on a cruise," Garnett said in an interview. "By the time they get to the cruise ship, they're all tuckered out, and they call us and ask, 'Can we get one of those scooters now?' "

Port Canaveral has been accommodating to special needs tourists, according to Rosalind Harvey, spokeswoman for the Canaveral Port Authority.
"I can't say that I've noticed the need more and more," she said. "But there have always been accommodations, like the beach wheelchairs at Jetty Park, so the awareness is definitely there."

That awareness is something new to a lot of cruise lines. But with larger ships rolling out of production, more cruise executives are starting to take notice.

On Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas, there is Braille carefully placed on each stairwell, which tells users where they are. The new Carnival Dream ship, also home ported at Port Canaveral, offers Braille in select areas of the ship.

Like other cruise lines, Carnival provides accommodations for guests with disabilities, such as a telecommunications device for the deaf kit which includes a text phone for those guests to communicate with, a "door knocker," which flashes a light in the room when someone knocks on the door, and a "bed shaker" which is often used by deaf guests as a wakeup call.

Blind guests are allowed to bring guide dogs with them on the trips, said Carnival spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz, and large-print literature is available for low-vision guests.

More ships are catching on to these newer types of accommodations.
Special Needs Group, Inc., was one of the first to tour the world's largest ship, Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, which is homeported at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale. Garnett said that the company made suggestions that weren't put in place on that ship, but may be when its sister ship, the Allure of the Seas, rolls out later this year.

"Whether (cruise lines) see it as a burden or not, we have a large aging population," he said. "If they don't turn it into a revenue opportunity, then it can be a problem."