Kuoni's special needs manager, Phil Boswell, writes:
At Kuoni we offer holidays to the four corners of the globe, in thousands of hotels at more than 60 countries around the world. Our philosophy is simple. All of our holidays are offered to all of our clients.
We start from the point that every holiday is possible, then we work with our clients to make sure they are able to go on the trip and enjoy it. We let our clients tell us what they can and cannot achieve, what help they may require, which extra facilities would make the holiday more enjoyable - then we do our best to arrange it.
Information is the key, both in the clients giving us accurate information as to what they can or want to achieve and information from the local ground agent or supplier as to what they can realistically offer. We work hard to continually update our records on resorts overseas and we often find specific information relevant to an individual client. We will
also advise clients which hotels, resorts and airlines in our experience may be more suitable for their requirements.
We would never label any of our holidays as 'suitable for a client with special needs', how could we? Our product range is so vast, although of course more importantly the range of our clients' abilities is even greater.
We had a young chap who is a tetraplegic on a holiday in the Caribbean. He wanted to go marlin fishing and then sailing and swimming in the Grenadines. He accepted that to achieve these he would need to be carried or 'manhandled' around to get on and off small boats and light aeroplanes. There were always people who wanted to help him and he had the attitude that he wanted to be helped, so they all worked together and he exceeded his expectations. He filmed his experiences for us, which is a joy for anyone to see.
We also had a lady who wanted to eat in one specific restaurant which had no wheelchair guest access, she didn't want to be carried up the few steps or to wheel through the kitchen area, so she accepted this wasn't the right hotel for her and she moved to another.
Our clients with special needs are no different to any of our Kuoni clients, we all have things we are looking for from a holiday, we all have expectations and so our job is to make sure the expectations are realistic and then help our clients to exceed them.
The attitude is positive, we want the client to book, to go on the holiday and enjoy it, we want them to come home and tell everyone about it and we hope they will come back and book with Kuoni again and again and again.