Customer Need

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.