Tarryn Tomlinson: Social Innovator and Entrepreneur

Background & Identity

Can you introduce yourself and share how you describe the work you do today?

I’m Tarryn Tomlinson, a social innovator and entrepreneur, accessibility consultant, writer and television presenter passionate about transforming how the world experiences luxury through inclusion. My work bridges the gap between accessibility and elegance, proving that empathy and excellence belong in the same room.

Where did you grow up, and how did your early environment shape your worldview, resilience, or affinity for culture and community?

I grew up in Cape Town, surrounded by both breathtaking beauty and deep social inequality. My mother was a struggling single parent, so I know what it is to go without – and that experience taught me the value of grace, gratitude, and perseverance. The contrast of my environment shaped my empathy and my determination to make the world more equitable. My community taught me that resilience isn’t about hardness; it’s about heart, connection, and refusing to let circumstance define possibility.

Which parts of your identity feel most essential to the story you’re telling through your work?

The central theme of my story is the power of the human imagination to transcend circumstance and create freedom. My disability may shape how I move through the world and how others perceive me, but it does not define me – it refines me. What truly defines me is knowing that I am an expression of God’s infinite creativity. That awareness allows me to see beyond barriers and reimagine what’s possible in design, hospitality, and in the human spirit itself. I lead from love, guided by the truth that we are all creators of our own reality.

Personal Journey

What pivotal personal moments or experiences most influenced the path you’re on now?

Becoming a wheelchair user shifted my entire lens. What began as personal adaptation became a calling to challenge how society defines value and beauty. That moment birthed my purpose.. to create spaces where everyone can belong with dignity.

What have been the greatest challenges you’ve navigated living with a disability, and what did they teach you about systems, humanity, or yourself?

The hardest part hasn’t been my disability; it’s been confronting a world that wasn’t designed for me. It taught me that exclusion is rarely about capability, but imagination. It also taught me to be both fierce and graceful in demanding change.

Is there a person, idea, or philosophy that fundamentally shifted how you see possibility?

I am deeply shaped by metaphysical philosophy and the sciences of consciousness, such as quantum physics, which have transformed how I see reality and my place within it. They’ve taught me that the world around us is not fixed, it responds to thought, intention, and belief. Florence Scovel Shinn’s teachings on divine order and grace further deepened that knowing. They reminded me that I am not limited by circumstance but guided by purpose. That life unfolds according to the vibration of my faith, not the conditions of my past.

Professional Evolution

How did your career begin, and what experiences sparked your mission around accessibility in travel, lifestyle, and hospitality?

My career began in social innovation, working to make systems more inclusive. But it was my own social life that sparked my mission in accessibility. I often spent time in hotels because they were the most accessible spaces for me to socialise and yet while sitting there, I began to notice the design flaws in what were considered “accessible” areas. The disconnect between physical access and genuine customer excellence revealed a deeper gap in understanding. That’s when I realised accessibility isn’t just about ramps; it’s about experience, dignity, and hospitality. From that insight, Liveable and Able2Travel were born – to redefine what luxury feels like when it truly includes everyone.

What gap or inequity did you see that convinced you change wasn’t optional?

Luxury was designed for the few, but beauty should never be limited by ability. I saw how a lack of accessibility wasn’t just inconvenient; it was dehumanising. Change became not an option, but a necessity for integrity.

When did you realise your lived experience could and should inform an industry’s standards?

When I began to review their spaces, I realised my lived experience wasn’t anecdotal; it was expertise. That was my power shift moment.

Accessibility & Luxury

What does “accessible luxury” mean to you, and why is it not a contradiction?

Accessible luxury is inclusion wrapped in elegance, where design considers everyone without sacrificing beauty. True luxury is ease, not excess.

Which systemic habits or assumptions within luxury hospitality do you think need urgent reimagining?

There’s an assumption that accessibility is a checklist, not a design philosophy. It’s seen as a cost, not an investment in human experience. That mindset must go.

How do you advocate for environments that create dignity, autonomy, and joy – not just compliance?

By centring empathy in design. When you start from the question, “How should someone feel in this space?”, dignity and joy follow naturally.

Impact & Advocacy

What change are you actively pushing for across travel, architecture, and service design?

That accessibility becomes synonymous with excellence. I want to see universal design embedded from concept to customer experience, not tacked on as an afterthought.

What conversations still feel missing when we talk about disability in lifestyle or tourism?

The conversation around aspiration. People with disabilities desire beauty, adventure, and luxury too – but we’re rarely seen through that lens.

How do you measure impact – emotionally, culturally, commercially?

Emotionally, through connection. Culturally, through representation. Commercially, through the number of businesses that choose to design with inclusion as strategy, not charity.

Inclusive Design & Storytelling

How do storytelling and representation shape public perception of disability?

Representation is the mirror that tells society who belongs. When we tell fuller stories of disability; stories of power, beauty, and joy, we change perception from pity to possibility.

What are brands still getting wrong in their attempts at inclusion?

They often mistake visibility for inclusion. Inclusion isn’t just showing diversity; it’s sharing power.

What questions should every hotel, destination, or operator ask before designing an experience?

“Who might we be unintentionally excluding?” and “How can this space feel beautiful, intuitive, and freeing to all bodies?”

The Industry Lens

How are travellers’ expectations shifting around accessibility, sustainability, and care?

Travellers today value consciousness, and they want experiences that feel ethical, inclusive, and authentic. Accessibility is becoming part of that moral luxury.

What does progress look like – not performative, but meaningful?

Progress is when accessibility is embedded in the design brief — not the press release.

Which destination, brand, or collaborator is doing it right and why?

Cape Winelands Municipality and The Diamond Works Institute have been a beautiful partner, proving that nature, conservation, luxury and inclusion can coexist in harmony.

Cultural Context

How does being South African influence the way you think about equity, access, or community?

South Africa’s history of exclusion has made inclusion sacred to me. We know what it means to be left out. And that gives us a deep empathy for justice.

What unique cultural strengths from the African continent could inspire global hospitality innovation?

Ubuntu: the belief that “I am because we are.” It’s the heartbeat of hospitality: generosity, warmth, and belonging.

What narratives do you want to challenge or rewrite?

That disability and luxury can’t coexist. That accessibility is clinical. I want to rewrite the story to say it’s chic, it’s human, it’s the future.

Entrepreneurial Lessons

What challenge tested you most as a founder or advocate, and how did you navigate it?

What’s tested me most as a founder is selling a service that many people don’t want to hear about. There’s an unspoken discomfort around disability; an aversion that runs deeper than policy or design. It’s emotional. It’s cultural. And often, it’s silence that speaks the loudest. The lack of understanding and resources has made my work feel, at times, like planting seeds in hard soil. But I’ve learned to keep sowing anyway. To meet indifference with compassion and use storytelling as light. Every closed door has taught me faith, patience, and the art of soft persistence. Because I know that once hearts open, change becomes inevitable.

What’s a risk you took that changed your trajectory?

The biggest risk I took was starting a foundation for underprivileged youth with no funds, just a dream. Over ten years, I learned social work and built my first social entrepreneurship model – the foundation of my work as a social innovator today. I eventually closed it to follow a new calling: creating a tourism business that opens the world to people with disabilities. That leap reshaped the trajectory of my life and purpose.

How do you protect your energy when your work sits at the intersection of activism and business?

Through spiritual discipline, prayer, stillness, and reminding myself that I am a vessel, not the source.

Future Vision

What’s next – projects, ambitions, spaces you want to transform?

What’s next is transforming the built environment – reshaping spaces so they’re not only accessible, but intuitive, elegant, and joyful for everyone. I want architecture, hospitality, and public spaces to reflect freedom, dignity, and possibility, proving that inclusion is not an add-on, but the foundation of exceptional design.

If you could shift one universal hospitality norm overnight, what would it be?

To see accessibility as a design aesthetic, not an accommodation.

When you imagine your future legacy, what do you hope people will feel because of your work?

That they belonged. That beauty and dignity were made available to them — not as privilege, but as birthright.

Human Details (TILT voice!)

What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you?

That I’m fluent in several languages — and that I secretly love to sing and create music.

What cultural moment in film, book, exhibition, conversation is inspiring you right now?

The global movement toward slow, intentional travel; it mirrors how I believe we should all live: consciously and beautifully.

Describe a recent moment that gave you joy, connection, or clarity.

Sitting by the ocean, watching the tide roll in realising that everything moves at divine timing, even me.

Quick-Fire

City that understands accessibility best: Barcelona
Most underrated inclusive design detail: Lever door handles.. small change, huge impact.
Your favourite accessible travel ritual: Pre-trip meditations to set intention.
A luxury no one talks about: Time.
Accessibility feature every hotel should implement tomorrow: Roll-in showers with seating and handheld sprayers.
The feeling you want travellers to take home: Freedom.

Closing

What’s one question you wish people asked about disability, access, or inclusion and how would you answer it?

Accommodation begins with mindset. If we each saw accessibility and inclusion not as an “us vs. them” issue, but as a shared responsibility, we would all win.

What would you tell younger you about beauty, pace, and power?

You are already enough. Move with grace, not haste. Your power doesn’t come from proving, it comes from being.