Experiences in the tourism industry after spinal cord injury: A scoping review

Despite being important for health and wellbeing, people with a disability engage in tourism significantly less than people who are non-disabled. It is important to understand why this is occurring so that we can set an agenda toward accessible tourism.

To understand the tourism experiences and needs of people living with spinal cord injury.

Seven databases were searched for papers related to tourism engagement by people with a spinal cord injury. Included papers were published in English from 2000 and included gray material. Qualitative and quantitative papers were charted separately, with the key findings extracted.

The search identified 3513 papers, duplicates were removed, 2192 papers were screened at title and abstract, 90 papers screened at full text, and 31 papers were included in the final synthesis. Fifty-eight percent of the papers explored American tourism, and 45% were articles in a spinal cord injury magazine. Collectively, the studies, conference papers, and magazine articles highlighted environmental and personal factors that support or hinder engagement in tourism, the impacts on the experience, and recommendations.

People with a spinal cord injury want to engage in tourism, however environmental and personal factors create challenges that prevent engagement. Advocacy efforts and consumer partnering are required to support disability education and improve accessible tourism. The limited amount of high-quality research highlights a gap in our knowledge and minimizes the trustworthiness and transferability of the findings from this scoping review.