Accessibility is not a topic very well covered or reported upon in the travel industry. At TPG, we utilize social-only Instagram story takeovers to uplift underrepresented voices and share perspectives around travel. For this story, we wanted to show our readers a day in the life of a differently abled traveler in order to educate our audience not living with a disability and inspire all kinds of travelers to get out there and see the world.
Our strategy to meet these objectives can be summarized as follows: (1) We found the right partner, the appropriate voice to tell this story. Cory Lee is a member of the TPG Advisory panel, a paid group of travel thought-leaders that ensures that our content is meeting the needs of all kinds of travelers. Cory is also the founder of Curb Free, a travel blog and foundation that sets out to chronicle the possibilities of wheelchair travel and provide funding for accessible trips all over the world. Cory’s inspiring story, unwavering charm, and proven ability to capture great content made him the perfect partner for this takeover. (2) We selected the right setting. By showcasing the accessibility of Rome and Venice, two common global tourist destinations, we inspired our followers to take a look at familiar places through new eyes. This recontextualization provided our audience with the opportunity to reflect upon the planning, consideration, and preparation that goes into wheelchair travel. (3) We provided utility for differently-abled travelers. Throughout the Instagram story, we linked to every accessible service, tour, and company that Cory used while in Italy, ensuring that a wheelchair user could watch this takeover and have every resource needed to book their own trip right away.
In total, the Instagram story attracted 341,428 impressions with each frame averaging 12,194 impressions. However the truly valuable result of this story was qualitative rather than quantitative. In response to this takeover, our inbox received countless messages from people all over the world, thanking Cory and TPG for the feature and informing us that the information provided inspired them to travel, despite their ability or wheelchair use.
