Industry Interview: Candy Harrington from Emerging Horizons
Posted on: August 14th, 2008 by Gareth RobinsonCandy Harrington is the Editor of Emerging Horizons, a unique magazine in the Travel Industry, focusing on access for disabled tourists. The magazome has been around for 11 years; so we caught up with Candy to talk about this industry and her thoughts about the future of the industry.
Candy Harrington, Editor, Emerging Horizons
Q1) How did you become involved in Emerging Horizons?
“Well, I’ve always been a travel writer — for over 30 years now — and about 15 years ago I decided I wanted to do something different. I was tired of covering what I considered “fluff” and I wanted to do something consumer oriented, with a little meat to it; but I still wanted it to be travel related. A friend suggested accessible travel and it sounded like a challenge, so I went with the idea. I took several years to just learn the laws and logistics of it all. Nobody was doing it back then, so it was rather novel. Several years later my husband and I decided to start Emerging Horizons. It’s gained momentum over the years, and we’re about to celebrate our 11th birthday — that’s pretty old in magazine land.”
Q2) What is your background?
“I have a background in travel journalism, and my husband is a photographer and a web developer. Both of us are able-bodied and we just wanted to provide a quality publication that addresses this niche topic.”
Q3) Did you think that Disability Access is something that is taken seriously by the big tour operators?
“I think with the aging of our population, yes, it is. We have a huge chunk of folks who are getting ready to retire and who have the means to travel; and because of age related disabilities some of them are not so mobile.”
Candy believes there is a huge chunk of people getting
ready to retire who have the means, but perhaps not the access to travel.
Q4) What do you think they could do to improve this area?
“I think generally that hotels and tourist attractions have done a good job in providing access; however we could use some improvement with accessible ground transportation. More and more places have accessible taxis, but not everywhere. Getting around on the ground (and to and from the airport) is still a big issue in many places if you happen to be in a wheelchair.”
Q5) What do you think is the biggest challenge affecting the industry at the moment?
“At the moment, I’d say the economy. Travel for the most part is seen as a luxury item and people are tightening their belts and even taking “staycations”. I’m worried about the ripple down effect this will have; as tourism providers will loose money and then layoff people, which will result in less service. And access is somewhat of a service oriented issue.”
Candy thinks the current economic climate is a major
issue facing the industry
“It takes more time to book a person in a wheelchair than it does to book an able-bodied person, so I’m worried about the effect this will all have on disabled travelers. For example, Royal Caribbean laid off 400 employees last week; including one Access Depart employee. They only had 8 employees in that department, and they were always busy, so this is a big blow to that department — and to disabled passengers.”
Q6) With BA’s recent announcement of such a huge loss in profits what can the industry do to adapt in this climate?
“Well, it’s not just BA; a lot of airlines are feeling the pinch in this economic climate. It’s a tough call, but I think they are probably going to end up dropping some of their less profitable routes. That will be a shame, because people will have one less way to get to those destinations. I don’t think they can raise prices enough to cover their losses, and still have fares at a price point that consumers will accept. Fuel keeps going up.”
Q7) How do you think the internet’s changed the travel industry?
“It’s revolutionized the travel industry. Today you have information at your fingertips that you just couldn’t get 20 years ago. You can find out about hotels and tours and sights in far off lands. And if you don’t speak the language you can use one of the internet translation tools (google is my favorite). You can chat and e-mail people who actually live in the places you are going to visit, and get accurate first-hand information.
The Internet’s changed how we book and look at holidays
And of course you can book online. Now that’s a little harder for disabled people to do, as far as hotels go. You still have to call to make sure their accessible room meets your needs (they are all different) and to make sure they will block it for you, so it will be there when you arrive. Still, you can glean a lot of information from the internet, and even see photos and videos of the places you want to go.
Plus, it’s the place to go for the most updated information. Of course you have to be careful, and really research things, as you can’t always believe everything you read on the web. Still it’s a great trip planning tool.”
Q8) There has been a lot of debate about the Environment and the Travel Industry’s impact on it. Do you think that the Travel Industry has a responsibility, and if so, how do you suggest it should combat damaging the Environment?
“Well I think we all should take a little responsibility for the damage we’ve caused the environment. Myself included. Nobody put a gun to my head and forced me to travel the globe for the past 30 years, but I did and yes, I created a big carbon footprint. Today I’m a big fan of carbon offsetting. It’s easy — you just go to a website like www.carbonfund.org and calculate the carbon emissions a particular event (like an airplane flight) will produce, and then it tells you how much it will cost to offset those emissions. In the case of my recent round trip flight to DFW, it was a little over $10.
So you send them that money and it goes to carbon-reducing projects such renewable energy and reforestation. It’s easy. And businesses can do it too. At a recent conference I attended, one sponsor paid for the carbon-offsets of all of the over 1,000 attendees. I’d like to see some hotels, cruise lines and other tourism providers jump on the carbon-offset bandwagon too!”
Carbon offsetting, an easy way to repay the environment for your trip
Q9) What is the key thing, in your opinion that you cant be without when you’re travelling?
Your sense of humor. Don’t leave home without it.
Q10) In your opinion, what are the three best places in the World to visit on a holiday?
“I’m going to say, Macchu Picchu, Peru (you just have to go before you die)
Macchu Picchu – a place to see before you die
Far North Queensland Australia (it’s beautiful and I had the good fortune to live there early on in my career)
Candy lived in Australia so North Queensland is a special place for her
And my mountain cabin about 50 miles southeast of Yosemite National Park (we don’t rent out rooms, but it’s where my husband and I spend about half our time, and we love it.)”
Yosemite Park, Candy has a cabin there
