The most important need of deaf and hard of hearing individuals when travelling is independence and efficient communication with the providers of services.
For the majority of people holiday is often about relaxing or exploring and most importantly about spending time with their family, relatives and friends. However, people with a loss of hearing often can not travel without an interpreter, which means that they have to travel with one more stranger person in order to help them communicate with the public and the providers of services. As a result, the travel becomes not that personal and can even be disruptive to excellent holiday experiences.
What is more, if deaf or hard of hearing individuals go on tour or excursion during their holiday they need to find a guide who knows sign language in order to experience an informative and interesting excursion. This often happens when travelling in larger deaf or hard of hearing groups, which also means that people need to adapt to the whole group‘s wants rather than going and seeing places only that you are interested in. Of course some people could argue that deaf people can use tour guidebooks or brochures and in this way travel alone and without any commitments to other people. But what I indicate is a more convenient and enjoyable way of travelling for this particular group of people. To put it in other words, deaf people are already able to travel alone, but I suggest to look at their travelling from a different angle and involve modern technologies which will make their travel experiences more enjoyable and satisfying.
It was rather difficult to find an idea for this blog as there are so many innovations and technologies involved in hospitality and tourism industry already that make our travelling experiences brilliant.
However, I accidentally read an article about one deaf man‘s (Jim Actor) and his wife‘s travelling experiences. He was telling about several difficulties that deaf people face when travelling. After reading this article I thought that some modern technologies could actually improve travelling experiences of deaf or hard of hearing. Hence, I decided to focus on special customer needs of deaf and hard of hearing people.
I think it is important to pay attention to deaf and hard of hearing people as there are huge numbers of them and they have the same wants and expectations of travelling as other people. According to Jamie Berke (2010), the deafness guide, there are no reliable deafness statistics as these numbers are always changing and some people do not identify themselves as having a hearing loss. However, it is estimated that there are from 22 million to 36 million deaf and hard of hearing (Berke, 2010). These are significant numbers and I truly believe that issues concerning people having hearing problems and particularly their travel experiences require much more attention than they get at the moment.
Travelling for people who have problems with hearing is rather limited today. First of all, this is because they need interpreters to help them during the whole trip. Secondly, they have to travel with other deaf or hard of hearing people if they do not want to be left out and enjoy their journey in the same way as other travellers. Lastly, if deaf or hard of hearing prefer to travel alone they might face lots of problems at destinations and particularly during the tours or excursions.
In order to improve travelling experiences of this particular group of people businessmen or organisations could use modern technologies like a special mobile app or screens which would provide information in sign language. It would make their journeys more enjoyable and satisfying. Thus, I will focus on a special mobile application that contains a number of facilities in order to improve travelling of people with hearing problems.
As the demands of consumers are increasing, hoteliers must think of new innovative ideas to attract guests and to stand out. As a result, in-room technology is becoming more and more advanced and has many services on offer. In general, in-room technology makes one's stay at a hotel convenient and comfortable. It provides guests with services created for business and work as well as entertainment.
Nowadays in many hotels you are offered to use free wireless (Wi-Fi) high-speed Internet. Also, guests are able to watch TV and use devices like telephone or fax machine/copier. These services are to ensure a productive stay of business customers, however it can be useful to leisure guests too.
Furthermore, in-room technology can offer customers many various services in order to make their stay more pleasurable. For instance, guests can enjoy in-room movies or listen to music. Also, if you come with children they can play computer games. Some hotels even start offering up-market services like iPod or MP3 players to their customers for an additional price.
As I have mentioned before, in-room technology is becoming more and more sophisticated. Apart from all services mentioned above, guests can do much more things while operating special in-room technology system provided in the room. For instance, customers can control lighting, adjust room temperature, set alarm clock, open curtains or even book a flight just by using the remote control or control for touch screen.
In-room technology in Aria Hotel
However, hoteliers face issues that must be considered before purchasing and installing in-room technology. Firstly, they need to decide what in-room technology they would like to offer to their customers and at what price. For example, they might decide to provide iPods at free of charge but they must think of customer needs, as guest might want his/her own information/songs/contacts on the iPod. In this way, the provision of free iPods will neither satisfy customers nor give profit to the hotel. To avoid problems like this, it would be useful for hotelier to read reviews about in-room technology of both customers and other hoteliers. Another problem might be the installation of a particular in-room technology as some might require to change the infrastructure. One solution to this could be to use 'Plug and Play' systems. Finally, hotelier must consider the price of in-room technology installation and maintenance.
A happy guest is one that will refer and return (Nick Youle, 2011). As hospitality industry is very competitive, hoteliers need to become familiar with new technologies in order to make guests' stay more enjoyable and restful. In this way, they will build good reputation and ensure loyal customers.
For the majority of people holiday is often about relaxing or exploring and most importantly about spending time with their family, relatives and friends. However, people with a loss of hearing often can not travel without an interpreter, which means that they have to travel with one more stranger person in order to help them communicate with the public and the providers of services. As a result, the travel becomes not that personal and can even be disruptive to excellent holiday experiences.
What is more, if deaf or hard of hearing individuals go on tour or excursion during their holiday they need to find a guide who knows sign language in order to experience an informative and interesting excursion. This often happens when travelling in larger deaf or hard of hearing groups, which also means that people need to adapt to the whole group‘s wants rather than going and seeing places only that you are interested in. Of course some people could argue that deaf people can use tour guidebooks or brochures and in this way travel alone and without any commitments to other people. But what I indicate is a more convenient and enjoyable way of travelling for this particular group of people. To put it in other words, deaf people are already able to travel alone, but I suggest to look at their travelling from a different angle and involve modern technologies which will make their travel experiences more enjoyable and satisfying. 
