Member Article

The Alnwick Garden is officially accessible to all.

It has been a big week for The Alnwick Garden. Not only did they win the North East Charity Award for Outstanding Social Enterprise but they have published their official Accessibility Guide, with thanks to Visit England. With the official launch of its new Access Statement, The Alnwick Garden is now at the forefront of accessible tourist venues in England and are hoping to provide the highest possible standards of customer experience to everyone, regardless of age or ability.

The access statement was developed thanks to Visit England’s Accessible Tourism initiative in a drive to help venues better cater for the requirements of people with access needs, including those with physical, sensory or learning disabilities, elderly visitors and parents with small children.

These access guides allow potential visitors to plan the trip from the comfort of their armchair on a PC, table or mobile phone – it’s aim is to inform visitors with access needs of every single aspect of the venue from car parking, to transport to and from the venue to access to amenities.

Alnwick Garden Director Mark Brassell said: “From the very beginning, The Alnwick Garden was built with accessibility in mind, right down to the swing bridges at the treehouse being wheel chair friendly.

The thought process behind compiling these access statements is to further demonstrate that The Alnwick Garden is accessible to absolutely everyone and anyone. We pride ourselves on the provision that we provide and the standards of staff training and customer service further demonstrate this.“

Accessible tourism for day trips is currently valued at more than £9.4billion to the English economy, an increase of 33% in four years, which demonstrates the huge potential economic benefits to hundreds of businesses and services across the country of catering for this market. Currently, of the 11 million disabled people in Britain, only 2 million take a holiday, because they find it just too difficult.

“This is hopefully one further step towards all venues and attractions in England becoming accessible to all and is just another reason why the North East is becoming one of the Country’s most popular tourist destinations.”

You can read the access statements via either the Visit England or The Alnwick Garden websites.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Alnwick Garden .