Only The Best Travel
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Travel has been my inspiration ever since I was a pre-teen, daydreaming about the Himalayas. But in my eighth decade, I began to realize that I would never again navigate the rockslides between Nepal into Tibet or hike from the Rome train station to Trastevere. My bum knee prevents me from even hopping on (or off) the hop-on-hop-off bus tours.
I know that I am not alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2020 some 40 percent of people over the age of 65 reported having a disability.
This is a cohort (and for businesses, a market) that cannot be ignored.
Baby boomers want to take to the road, with or without disabilities. Over the next 8 years, some 30.9 million disabled travelers are expected to hit the roads. According to AARP The Magazine, many boomers have been saving for travel during the pandemic and are “more likely to have set aside unused travel funds for future getaways.”
Older folks will travel in the future — by foot, in wheelchairs, on cruises, and on bucket list trips. When getting around isn’t as easy as it used to be, you can still follow your inspiration and travel the world. But finding travel that is appropriate for one’s specific challenges requires a substantial investment of time, energy, and sometimes, additional costs. Here are my tips to make it easier.
I’ve traveled with Road Scholar in the past because it allows me to choose from a variety of activity levels for my trip.
Their programs include different exertion levels for trips by land, by sea, and for outdoor hikes and camping. Due to my bum knee, I have certainly been more attracted to their offerings in their “Easy Going” activity level, which are education focused and require minimal walking. If you want to turn it up a notch or two, you can choose the walking-heavier “On Your Feet” journeys, the more moderate “Keep The Pace” adventures, or the challenging “Let’s Go” trips, just to name a few. There is even a “Choose Your Pace” level for some trips, with several choices of activities available each day.
Other travel companies with tiered activity levels are Intrepid Travel, Adventures Abroad, and Smithsonian Journeys.
From traveling with Road Scholar, I came to learn that there were many methods of making a trip easier. For instance:
Use a cross-body bag so that you have your hands free to carry lightweight luggage. And, of course, travel as light as you can so that you have constant control of what you have.
Bring a cane, walker (or walker with wheels), walking sticks, or other equipment to help keep your balance. I sometimes use a portable folding seat. It certainly makes life easier, knowing that you can rest when you like!
Tell people when you need help. Lots of folks have issues that are not obvious at first glance, so communicating your needs is the best way to get support.
Wheelchair and scooter users should consider Wheel the World.
Co-founder Alvaro Silberstein was paralyzed from the chest down at 18, but that has not stopped him. He has traveled via wheelchair to five continents. Now, through Wheel the World, he arranges journeys for those similarly challenged. In fact, he offers more than 80 destinations for his clients around the world and can also arrange solo travel or private group trips.
Other great companies for wheelchair and scooter travel are Travel for All, Planet Abled, and Sage Traveling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pILDol6X-Q
Many mobility-challenged individuals find that cruises are the easiest way for them to travel to multiple destinations. A growing number of cruise lines offer accessible cabins and shore excursions, as well as boarding and deboarding assistance. Some have pool lifts, special seating areas, and accessible restrooms.
Individual ships offering accessible wheelchair travel include Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, Holland America’s Koningsdam, and Celebrity Reflection.
Because there are many wheelchair and scooter travelers on cruise ships, make sure that you leave enough time to plan for shore excursions and boarding/deboarding the ship.
New methods of research, new databases, new technical aids, and the abundance of ways to spread information about easy fixes are enabling the mobility-challenged to travel easier and safer.
I have a fiercely independent friend who has been wheelchair bound for many years. She has often talked about having access to information that helps her travel on her own. If you’re one of these independent travelers, here are some sites to help you find out where, when, and how you can plan trips on your own or with your family.
Mobility International USA has created “partnerships, projects, training, and programs to advance the rights of people with disabilities globally.” They offer information about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, advocacy strategies, helpful publications, resource development, and accessibility guidance.
SATH provides information on everything from ideal destinations for wheelchair travelers to resources for travelers who are blind, deaf, or on the autism spectrum.
The venerable Lonely Planet provides free lists of travel agents and tour operators who specialize in disabled travel. They also publish the Accessible Travel Phrasebook (PDF), which features about 100 disability-related words and phrases in 35 languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese.
Jake Steinman, the founder of TravelAbility, has forged relationships with scores of businesses, travel sites, and technology and publishing companies. He believes in the power to “unlock the intrinsic goodness of those who want to help.”
As part of TravelAbility, Steinman also created LaunchPad, a major showcase for adaptive technology and innovations that make travel easier for people with disabilities. High-tech products discussed have included a wheelchair that folds into a carry-on; WHILL, a power wheelchair summoned with an app; and the Alinker, a “non-motorized walking bike without pedals.”
What rights do you have as a wheelchair or scooter traveler in airports, hotels, or public transportation? Each country has its own rules. Before you book, make sure you know what obstacles you may face and plan accordingly. Here are some sites for information.
According to the Travel with Disabilities section of the Department of State website, which is helpful in its own right, each country has its own laws about accessibility for people with disabilities.
Familiarize yourself with the laws of your intended destination before planning the trip. A good resource for this is the United Nations’ list of accessibility laws by country or area.
One of the biggest challenges is lodging because the word “accessible” can be freely interpreted by hotel providers. However, both the United States and the European Union support transportation rights for disabled travelers.
In the United States, the U.S. Access Board site lists the Americans with Disabilities Act standards.
The European Union has air, rail, bus, and ship passenger rights for disabled travelers. For all modes of transport, disabled travelers have the right to free assistance at terminals and on vehicles. The non-profit European Network for Accessible Tourism (ENAT) also provides information about access for disabled travelers in the E.U.
There are challenges to finding information about accessible travel in Asia, but note that several cities in Asia — including Hong Kong, Seoul, and Shanghai — all have greater access to public transportation than do most major western cities.
A lot of intrepid older travelers are independent, feisty, and courageous. Their ability to travel with groups, families, or even on their own is pretty amazing and inspirational. We all want to head out into the world and see and experience what we’ve dreamed about all our lives. Where we go and how we maneuver may have changed, but limited mobility doesn’t mean limiting dreams.
When Royal Caribbean offers a great deal of shore tour choices, some cruisers discover them selves wanting somewhere else for a little something to do in port. No matter if you are on the lookout for an activity not provided by Royal Caribbean, hoping to …
Families are dashing to ebook half phrase and Easter vacations as Covid limits proceed to ease. In accordance to Google, the research for ‘half term holiday seasons abroad’ has improved by approximately 5 for every cent in the previous week by yourself. 2 Households are …
It is a tough world out there appropriate now, to set it flippantly. And the retail market is viewing the consequences. Inflation is at the highest level in virtually 4 many years, with common selling prices rising by just about 7{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a}, despite the fact that lots of personal categories, this kind of as food and cars and trucks, have risen by a great deal a lot more. In the meantime, there is a juxtaposition in retail where regular and powerful customer desire for goods has run headlong into provide chain logjams. Growing inflation has also taken a toll on purchaser self-confidence amounts, which have dipped to the least expensive levels in a long time.
In the meantime, Americans’ credit card financial debt rose during the past quarter by $17 billion, a facet outcome of the reality that over 50 {e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — 57{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — of U.S. shoppers stay paycheck-to-paycheck and borrow resources to make finishes meet up with.
Taken collectively, the sum of the financial components is one of mounting stress that is setting up to emerge in the kind of rising delinquency rates, deferred investing or other cutbacks or curtailment.
“Of course, much is dependent on the state of the pandemic. Should really the omicron variant improve an infection premiums in a sustained development, consumer sentiment will undergo,” said PYMNTS.
The Reward That Keeps Giving
From this backdrop, retailers struggling with their individual supply chain and inflation pressures have passed the escalating cost of accomplishing business onto customers and in the meantime, men and women and families have a tendency to be scaling back a bit about how much they will expend this yr.
To wit, the hottest retail sales knowledge for November — which provided Black Friday and an before-than-typical run-up to it — which rose an anemic .3{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} for the month, an economic stall that was felt by department suppliers and electronics and appliance dealers, in distinct.
“The Grinch is creeping into the place — in the variety of inflation — threatening to upend the getaway paying that so quite a few stores have been banking on,” PYMNTS reported last 7 days with regards to the intersection of inflation with holiday browsing.
Most likely this is why shoppers — even all those who are fiscally stable — are leaning much more toward buy now, pay afterwards (BNPL) financing models when examining out, as opposed to using on extra open up-ended financial debt, a truth clearly mirrored in the 230{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} spike in BNPL use more than the earlier calendar year.
The dilemma stays: What are consumers buying in terms of gifts for their close friends, cherished types, colleagues and outside of this holiday break season?
1 response is present playing cards this holiday time might arguably come to be “The Yr of the Gift Card,” as PYMNTS noted final thirty day period. Gift playing cards are straightforward, they clear away guessing games, and if obtained on-line, they are seamless and touchless. And with source chain snafus ensuing in far more buyers locating empty shelves at locations like the grocery store and over and above, deferring acquiring right up until cabinets restock and then using a reward card can make perception.
Up to 41{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} of people strategy to do so this holiday break period, with the typical consumer now buying a full of 15 pre-paid present cards over the whole study course of 2021. The latter selection signifies a 50{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} boost in comparison to 2020 and a 200{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} improve in contrast to 2019.
The way consumers are shopping for reward cards is a little bit a lot more intimate, with some companies catering to this with customized “experiential” gift card bundles, so buyers can mix gift playing cards how they choose. Or, permitting individuals to buy gift playing cards very easily by way of QR codes. Or allowing prospects to acquire crypto for another person via gift card.
Likely back again to the strategy of inflation, a person essential point is that because inflation is rising, so are gift card price ranges. To what extent this impacts long run gift card purchases remains to be seen.
Amazon, Walmart and Concentrate on Dominate Client Investing Habits
When you glimpse at some conclusions bordering this year’s Black Friday profits, people appeared to not be in a hurry to snag promotions. According to PYMNTS info, most shoppers — 61 {e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — said they did not wake up early that day to snag objects for panic they’d be offered out. Most — in excess of 77{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — child boomers mentioned they felt no need to operate out and invest in anything. About 50 percent of Era Z customers stated they also didn’t wake up on Black Friday to rating discounts early.
Concerning customer paying out habits this holiday getaway so far, 31{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} of Black Friday customers who ordered toys, passion objects and musical instruments did so in-retail outlet. Most Black Friday Walmart shoppers — 59{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — went inside of a bodily shop. Most Black Friday buyers in normal — 66{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} — built on line purchases. Amazon and Walmart’s web sites were the most well known spots to store for Black Friday. People built 71{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} of their Black Friday buys on Amazon.com and 41{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} at Walmart.com.
“The struggle between Amazon and Walmart for manage of consumers’ retail spend is neck-and-neck, with the eCommerce huge and the Arkansas box keep chain’s each individual holding about a 9{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} share of overall U.S. retail revenue,” PYMNTS 2020 information confirmed.
Specified this competitive and constrained atmosphere, shops want to cautiously believe about how they can most effective provide customers hunting to make buys amid a battling economy. It could look extremely easy, but simple, quick and low-cost are 3 phrases that will dominate buyer buying this holiday break year — and past.
It’s been explained that if you are fortunate, you can only get two of the three as a client, that means any service provider that can produce on all 3 fronts is set to not only get the sale and the day, but wil preserve buyers coming back again for additional if tough times persist.
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NEW PYMNTS Knowledge: AUTHENTICATING IDENTITIES IN THE Electronic Economic system – DECEMBER 2021
About:Additional than half of U.S. people feel biometric authentication approaches are more quickly, more convenient and more trustworthy than passwords or PINs — so why are significantly less than 10{e9f0aada585b9d73d0d08d3c277fd760092386ec23cac37d50f4b8cd792b062a} utilizing them? PYMNTS, in collaboration with Mitek, surveyed extra than 2,200 customers to much better define this notion vs . use gap and recognize approaches businesses can boost use.