Inclu: a pioneering new inclusive luxury hospitality and travel group

The UK’s most established accessible and inclusive hospitality experts have unveiled Inclu – a revolutionary new brand encompassing a plethora of products and services created to realise their vision of enabling travel for all, and encapsulated by the strapline “It means the world. To everyone.” More than a specialist accessible travel company, Inclu is set to galvanise the whole industry from top to bottom, engaging at scale with hotels, restaurants, travel providers, agents and service suppliers, and drive a sea change in the way customers book and experience travel.

Driving inclusive travel is not only a moral imperative, but it also makes for a compelling business case.  The World Health Organization estimates that over 1.3 billion people – 15-20 percent of the global population – experience disability. This group, along with their friends and family, has an estimated spending power of USD13 trillion*. In the UK alone, there are an estimated 16 million disabled people**, and the combined spending power of households with at least one disabled person – known as the purple pound – is worth approximately £274 billion per year*** to the UK economy.

Inclu is the vision of CEO and cofounder Richard Thompson, himself spinal cord injured, and a leading authority and passionate advocate of ‘total guest inclusion’ in global travel, hospitality and leisure. For decades Thompson has been influencing, innovating and shaping the landscape of opportunity for travellers with physical, sensory, neuro-divergent or other visible or non-visible exceptionalities. Together with cofounder and web accessibility pioneer Ian Carter, and an all-star leadership team of travel, technology and education experts including Head of Travel Services, Alison Pearson and LuxePrivé founder Namai Bishop, Richard has developed a complete ecosystem of services, solutions and support that is set to transform travel opportunities for disabled people.

B2C products announced at launch include new concierge-led bespoke hotel and restaurant discovery platforms, Inclusive Luxury Hotels and Inclusive Luxury Table – the first of a raft of B2C brands and products set to be rolled out throughout 2025. Each exclusively features hotels and restaurants that have completed the rigorous five-step journey to become Verified by IncluCare – Inclu’s expert-led evaluation, education and transformative programme for hospitality providers.

Accessible Water Hoist at Amilla Maldives.

Inclu has also simultaneously launched Inclu Academy, a comprehensive suite of training programmes for the luxury travel supply chain ecosystem of independent contractors (ICs), destination management companies (DMCs) and tour operators; and Inclu Consulting, offering strategic solutions and services for the hotel, hospitality and travel trade, drawing on over 50 years’ collective industry expertise.

Training and education are a central pillar of the Inclu vision to change mindsets and instil the concept of ‘Conscious Inclusivity’ – a paradigm shift of thinking and actions that goes well beyond the narrow, static construct of ‘accessibility’, too often seen as the only measure of an organisation’s capacity to accommodate guests with disabilities. In contrast, ‘Conscious Inclusivity’ identifies ‘facility’ – the built and physical environment – as only one facet of genuinely equitable provision. As Thompson explains, “an organisation’s capacity to welcome and delight disabled guests is overwhelmingly determined by its provision of an impeccable, personalised and consciously inclusive service delivered by an aware, empowered and confident workforce, facilitating access to the full range of amenities and experiences that it has to offer.”

Verified by IncluCare

Established in 2022, Verified by IncluCare accreditation is awarded only to hotels, restaurants and hospitality venues that successfully implement IncluCare’s curated programme designed to empower organisation leadership and all guest-interacting staff to establish a culture of inclusivity for guests with mobility, sensory and neurodivergent exceptionalities. Crucially, it requires hotels to make their accessible room inventory visible, bookable and confirmed at the point of booking – a revolutionary point of difference in a travel landscape where Inclu estimates approximately USD1.5bn of (in)accessible room inventory remains invisible and unsold each year****.

“Inclu is the culmination of nearly three decades of endeavour and expertise in removing barriers to travel freedoms, equality and inclusion for disabled people across the globe.” continued Thompson. “Until now, options within the accessible and inclusive travel sector have been way too limited; isolated pockets of inclusivity excellence that occasionally capture attention. We created Inclu to shift perceptions and shine a light on what is possible when established adventure meets adaptive innovation. When trusted, tried and tested tours of the mind, spirit and body are formed to wow and delight the one sixth of the world’s population who live with physical, sensory and neurodivergent exceptionalities – many of whom will surely dare to venture into a world of intrepid inclusion in travel, if only we give them, authentically, the confidence to do so.”

The article Inclu: a pioneering new inclusive luxury hospitality and travel group first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.