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Sensory Tourism (Lead Section)
Sensory tourism is a form of tourism, that caters for people with vision impairment. Those suffering from vision impairment face many difficulties based around mainstream tourism such as access to information, navigation, safety and the knowledge of others around them. This has caused the visionless members of society to travel much less than those with no vision impairment. Combining the theories behind tourism in terms of its psychology and its relation to the senses, an inclusive experience for the visually disabled was developed. Sensory tourism engages the physical and multi-sensory aspects of tourism, enhancing the tourism experience specifically for those with, but also benefitting those without vision impairment.

The Psychology of Tourism
Historically, regular tourism is heavily focused on sightseeing, rather than memories and experiences gained from travelling. Based on recent reviews of the psychology of tourism, it is argued that a tourists experience of a place is based upon the individuals memory, which is actively shaped by what they see, but also what they “hear, smell, touch and taste.” In order to build a pleasurable tourism experience for those who are vision impaired, but also those who are not, discovery of a place should be based on “social and cultural” experiences. Adding to this, the traveller’s anticipation and participation for future trips are based on previous "emotions, satisfactions, and memories of experiences prior," which can often be a barrier faced by visually impaired travellers.

Applying psychology to the context of sensory tourism, a travelling experience for someone with vision impairment should be “considered as a dynamic and reflective process”. This allows those with sight issues a chance to experience a place with their other active senses, leading to further excitement for future tourism experiences. Through enhanced interaction with “physical, social, and virtual environmental stimuli,” the visually impaired can base their travel experience on psychological factors other than sight.

The Senses in Tourism
The senses within the body are how information is collected about a person’s surroundings. In terms of tourism, the “bodily states, situated actions, and mental simulations are used to generate our cognitive activity,” which leads to a tourist having certain memories and attitudes toward places they visit (Krishna, 2012). The senses are considered to be the foundations of how tourists interact with their surroundings, and how they create opinions and make sense of these surroundings. Consequently, the design of sensory tourism should be based around the foundations of knowledge surrounding the bodily senses. Applying an understanding of the senses to tourism for those with vision impairment will enhance their travelling experience through “tactility, aroma, movement and sound,” which allows them to build a positive relationship between the place that they visit, and the meaning associated with that place. Hence, more attention needs to be paid more toward the senses rather than just the visual tourism experience, to ensure these people can still gain an “enriched experience” of places they visit. In turn, those with impaired vision will be able to broaden their horizons.

A Gap in the Market
Tourism companies have struggled to adapt to changing industry needs and have “failed to engage seriously with disability issues,” which leads to a negative connotation with visited areas by those of whom choose to visit. The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2012 there were 285 million people suffering from vision impairment worldwide. As Packer rightfully explains, people with disabilities “have the right to fully participate in the community,” and they should be able to “enjoy the same quality of life” as those without. It goes without saying that this includes tourism, but research shows that people with vision impairment are not travelling as frequently as those without.

This infrequency of vision impaired people travelling is due to the complexity and difficulty of travelling with vision impairment. There are four main factors that create a barrier between tourism and those with vision impairment, these being “accessing information, navigating the physical environment – safety, knowledge and attitudes of others [and] travelling with a Guide Dog.” There is “additional energy required to access” the information needed for those with vision impairment to travel, which makes it difficult for people to access resources and extra help in order to gain the most out of their travel experience, as well as allowing them to gain a positive psychological connotation to their place of visit. Without guidance from knowledgeable people or appropriate animal assistance, navigating foreign terrain can be difficult but also dangerous for visually impaired tourists. Another barrier for travellers that have impaired vision is the limited knowledge and attitudes towards others, which can sometimes cause feelings of exclusion. It is important that tourism companies “manage their tourist experiences closely and constantly,” in order to provide those with visual impairment an enjoyable experience. The tourism industry must understand the psychology and sensory aspects of tourism if “quality accessible experiences are to be available for tourists with vision impairment.”

After the improvement of some of these factors, tourists with visual impairment began to detach from the “visual gaze” of the tourism experience. As a consequence of this, the quality of their experiences improved.