In this module you will find a story about the tourism industry: read the dialogue between the characters and choose which is the correct way to behave in each situation!
David and Felicity Brown live at Hoe Grange Farm, a traditional English 250-acre grassland farm near Ashbourne, Matlock and Bakewell, on the edge of the southern Peak District where David grew up milking cows. In 2005, with milk prices falling, they made the decision to open up the farm to self-catering, holiday guests to supplement the farm income. The facility includes 4 accessible cabins and is an ideal base for outdoor activities, including walking and cycle touring holidays. In 2016, David and Felicity have won two prestigious national Visit England Awards for Excellence: Hoe Grange holidays were presented with both the Gold Award for Access for All and the Silver Award for Sustainable Tourism.
Ann is a journalist interviewing David and Ann about their farm and their success.
Ann (Journalist): How you have reached this successful outcome and what kind of challenges were you facing, regarding guests with disabilities?
David and Felicity: We wanted to offer a high-quality place for our guests and we have been passionate about providing wheelchair accommodation and holidays in accessible facilities.
We also welcome guests with autism and learning difficulties who find Hoe Grange a peaceful haven away from crowds.
We provide full information in our website and an Access Guide where we describe fully our accessible cabins, with text, photos and floor plans.
Although we have done our best within the farm when we started, we watched holiday guests with limited mobility being left behind while everyone else went off walking or cycling and enjoying the Peak District countryside.
The “Boma 7” outdoor wheelchair is a safe and rugged electric wheelchair that can be operated with a joystick or handlebars. It can take guests with disabilities on tracks and fields so they can enjoy the natural surroundings in safety. But of course, it is quite expensive.
What should David and Felicity have done?