Cox & Kings launches Enable Travel for the disabled community who wish to visit destinations in India
Cox & Kings has launched its online portal ‘Enable Travel’ to provide hassle free travel for people with disabilities. In a first-of-its-kind initiative to make tourism more inclusive and accessible, the portal will provide specially curated tours to four different segments. The brand aims to provide tours and crafted leisure outings for people with disabilities including mobility, speech and vision impairment.
Dr. Mahesh Sharma, minister of state tourism & culture along with Venu Rajamony, press secretary to the President of India were present during the launch ceremony in New Delhi. Debolin Sen, head, Enable Travel and Karan Anand, head, relationships, Cox & Kings unveiled the initiative in New Delhi, along with the Enable Travel panel – Rustom Irani, Divyanshu Ganatra, Shama Noorani, Prabal Malakar and Dr Alim Chandani. The panelists with different disabilities of mobility, hearing, speech and vision helped in creating the packaged tours.
Speaking at the launch, Sen said, “Enable Travel is a long-term commitment to make travel easy and hassle free in the country. The tours have been specially curated with the panel to make sure every detail is taken care of, like sourcing the desired equipments for smooth movements. We have also invested in wheelchairs, movable ramps, single wheel chairs for the beaches and hiking trails. In the first phase we will offer tours in the West, North and Southern markets and then slowly expand to central and East India.”
Destinations include Agra, Jaipur, New Delhi, Udaipur, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Kumarakom, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mararikulam, Bengaluru, Mysore and Coorg.
Talking about the the initiative, Anand stated, “Many tourists with disabilities within and outside India are keen on exploring different experiences the country has to offer. It is important to tap this largely underserved segment of travellers by providing quality assistance and services. We believe that the platform will not only cater to the people who can afford it, but also break the mental block among the families who hesitate to travel with their disabled members.”
The planning for the new platform started nine months ago and drew major support from the government, airlines and hotels. The government has already been working on revamping heritage monuments and major tourist areas with disabled-friendly facilities, informed Sen. He added that the initiative plans to target the 28 million disabled community in the country which reaches about 2.2 per cent of India’s population along with their families. The host of curated holiday experiences are customised for the unique needs of the wheelchair bound, the deaf and the vision and speech impaired.