By Alison: Why inclusive luxury travel matters

Travel has always represented freedom to me.

Not the glossy, brochure version of freedom – the kind where everything works perfectly and the sunsets are always in the right place but something deeper. The freedom to explore, to discover, to feel part of a world that is much bigger than the one we inhabit day to day.

But that freedom took on a very different meaning for me when I was sixteen.

A catastrophic road traffic accident changed my life in an instant. I became a single-leg amputee and suddenly the world I had moved through so easily before looked very different. Every step forward involved learning something new – about independence, resilience and how environments are often designed with certain assumptions about who will use them.

Travel was no exception.

Like many people, I had grown up dreaming about seeing the world. Yet as I began travelling again after my accident, I realised that many of those dreams came with invisible barriers. Not always deliberate ones – often simply the result of design decisions that had never considered travellers like me.

Sometimes it was physical: a hotel room that couldn’t quite accommodate how I moved, a gangway that required careful negotiation, or an excursion that assumed every traveller experienced the world in exactly the same way.

But more often, the barrier was something subtler.

It was the quiet assumption that certain journeys were designed for a particular kind of traveller – usually someone who is not disabled, energetic and effortlessly mobile.

And yet my love of travel never faded.

If anything, it became stronger. Travel offered something powerful: the ability to rediscover independence, to experience beauty and culture, and to connect with people and places in ways that remind us how extraordinary the world really is.

Over time, that personal relationship with travel evolved into a professional one. I built a career within the travel industry, including serving as Inclusivity Champion at Celebrity Cruises, where I was able to help shape conversations around how the industry could welcome a wider community of travellers.

Today, as Director of Travel Services at Inclu Travel Group, I work with travellers every day to design journeys that many once believed might not be possible.

And what I’ve learned through those experiences is this: inclusive travel isn’t just about accessibility.

Accessibility is essential – the practical elements that make travel physically possible. But inclusivity is something richer. It’s about designing experiences that recognise the diversity of travellers and ensure that everyone feels welcome, respected and able to participate fully.

It’s also about recognising something the luxury travel sector understands better than most: that exceptional travel experiences are deeply personal.

The most memorable journeys are not simply about beautiful destinations or five-star hotels. They are about how those experiences make us feel – comfortable, confident and able to immerse ourselves fully in the moment.

When inclusivity becomes part of that philosophy, luxury travel evolves into something even more meaningful.

It becomes travel designed for real people.

Through this column, I’ll be exploring how the travel industry is evolving; from cruising and aviation to hotels and adventure travel and asking an important question: who really gets to experience the world?

We’ll celebrate the companies that are leading the way, examine where barriers still exist, and share stories that show how travel can be reimagined when inclusivity is part of the journey from the very beginning.

Because travel should never be about whether someone is allowed to belong.

The most extraordinary journeys are the ones where everyone is invited to take part.

Share Blog