A businesswoman has opened up the world of travel to disabled holidaymakers on a budget with a website providing “accessible and affordable” holidays.
Experienced traveller Paula Hansen, 52, established World Accessible Holidays after spotting a gap in the market to make holidays abroad less stressful for disabled individuals travelling with families and their carers either as a disabled parent or child.
Paula has adopted the phrase ‘bedpreneur’ – an entrepreneur who sometimes must run their business from their bed – due to suffering from the painful chronic condition, fibromyalgia, which forces her to take regular breaks and adapt her working day, starting at 9am and rarely ending before 11pm.
She said:
“At times, it’s difficult to get up from bed because I’m constantly in pain, but I try my very best and if I have to spend a day on my feet – for example at an exhibition or speaking at a conference – I’ll just take it a bit easier the next day, flexible working is so important with a disability or illness.”
Worldaccessibleholidays.co.uk launched in January 2024 to support disabled customers and agencies who work with them. Paula and the team support with arranging flights and accommodation at high street prices.
The business idea was born out of Paula’s experiences of travelling abroad extensively with her husband, Steve, 53, and their wheelchair-user son, Evan, who has cerebral palsy, after his first visit to the US at the age of three to undergo pioneering surgery.
Paula explains:
“We love travelling, but we really had to muddle through and know how incredibly stressful it is for parents travelling with a disabled child. There are many pain points, starting with the airport, assistance to the plane, people piling up behind you wanting to get to their seat, and toilet facilities onboard. Then you spend the entire flight worrying about the wheelchair being left behind or arriving broken.
“When you get to the other side, you’re stressing about whether your transfer will turn up and if it’s going to be a suitable vehicle. Finally, you get to the hotel and find that an accessible room hasn’t been booked or the one you thought you’d been allocated has been given away. It’s totally frustrating and exhausting.”
Paula, who studied travel and tourism at university, turned her love for globetrotting into a business after giving up a 25-year career in the insurance industry as her medical condition worsened. She bought a part-time high street travel agency franchise and quickly became aware of the acute need for simple, accessible and affordable travel among online disability communities.
In 2023, Paula decided to set up independently acquiring an ATOL licence in order to build specialist holidays with niche suppliers, while also offering affordable friendly high street operator packages to suit people’s budgets
The first nine months of trading in 2024 have achieved the same turnover as 12 months produced with the high street franchise in 2023, while Paula forecasts sales to almost treble if the business recruits.
As enquiries flourished, operations manager Steve took redundancy to help get the business properly off the ground. The couple have so far invested £30,000 from savings and a bank loan.
Paula fronts the brand and deals with customer enquiries while Steve builds relationships with airlines and hotels behind the scenes.
She said:
“The accessibility market is hugely under-represented and badly serviced. There are a few good specialist operators, but are very expensive, and out of reach for many disabled families. Alternatively, if you try to book with a mainstream operator, it’s virtually impossible to guarantee an accessible room, and the booking process is extremely disjointed. Allocation of rooms on arrival is a huge problem & many booking platforms are not accessible or have the option to book an accessible room with equipment.
“We saw a massive opportunity to provide a one-stop holiday shop that takes away all the stress of booking flights and accommodation, at affordable prices, and that provides total reassurance from start to finish – whether it’s a budget trip or a bucket list trip of a lifetime.”
Longer term, Paula and Steve plan to sell their Cardiff home when Evan goes to university in the US so that they can work while travelling to the destinations their website offers to road-test them.
“The big dream is to live the experiences we’re providing and to launch into other countries,” says Paula. “In five years, we’d love to franchise this model to anyone with a disability or a lived experience of disability, so that they can run their own business – and we can ensure that this mission to open up the world to disabled travellers continues at pace.”
