By Simon Manda
A media campaign to giveaway a rare jewel is underway from the 3rd of November 2022 to aid efforts by Able2Travel to visit Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the UAE to attend The Accessabilities Expo and the inaugural World Media Congress.
The Diamond Works, a sub division of Tourvest’s Jewelvest, heeded the call by Able2Travel, the tourism arm of Liveable – a one stop accessibility and inclusive living and tourism company, to support its efforts to attend the two ground-breaking events happening in the UAE between the 15-17 November 2022.
The Diamond Works conducts jewellery making tours and has made their infrastructure accessible for a diversified market. The media campaign partnership is of the many to come initiatives to support accessible tourism.
The campaign, dubbed “Jewel of the East” pays homage to activist and TV presenter, Tarryn Tomlison as the “jewel” of the campaign for her tireless work in inclusive and accessible tourism as well as championing campaigns in the media space.
“The built environment plays a huge role in how we are united or divided as a community. This is true in a local and global context. Understanding how to be inclusive in our building and tourism practices and becoming inclusive, will bring billions into our economy, creating more jobs for more people. Dubai has taken great strides in becoming inclusive and so we look to the East for better practices to bring home to SA,” remarks Tarryn, The Founder and CEO of Liveable.
The jewel is an 18 carat white gold, 1.00 carat tanzanite AA+ violet blue coloured gem worth R40 000. The number 40 is also a milestone celebration of the 40 years of age that Tarryn celebrated this year on the 11th of October.
Aimee Lentz, Jewelvest Brand Manager explains that tanzanite is 1000 times rarer than diamonds and is considered the essence of Africa.
“The rarity of this blue gem truly represents the magnitude of how rare accessible travel is to differently abled travellers and the aim of Able2Travel’s Jewel of the East campaign is to grow awareness and in time improve accessibility for all, “she added.
The 3rd of November also marks an important calendar day in South Africa as the beginning of the month long Disability Month to celebrate and honour the disability rights movement by various stakeholders.
Tarryn and her team will undertake the journey to attend the two events to network and foster relations to adopt good practises and aim to bring similar events to South Africa amongst other aims.
Accessible Tourism market is one of the fastest growing global tourism markets generating an economy worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Taking the American market as an example, Americans with disabilities between 2018 – 2019 spent $ 58.7 billion on travel. One in four Americans have a disability.
With more direct flights coming into Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg from America, Asia and Europe, all-family inclusive holidaying plus a global aging population, tapping into this market is securing business in the future.
Countries within the Middle East have understood the value of including all people within their economy and have taken massive strides in becoming Universally Accessible and changing people’s perception around Persons with Disabilities whom they now call – People of Determination.
“The launch in Cape Town on the 3rd of November will mark the beginning of the Disability Month as well as to encourage communities to begin conversations around accessible tourism being supported by high end leisure brands so as to raise awareness to product owners and persons with disabilities on the possibilities and availability of access and inclusion in tourism spaces, “said Simon Manda, media liaison officer at Able2Travel.
“This campaign will be driven on social media spaces documenting our jewel, Tarryn, as she travels between Dubai and Abu Dhabi showcasing the gem to be eventually won by anybody who will have the highest impact on the campaign in terms of social media exposure and reposting.”
To spread the message and stand a chance to win, follow us on Instagram and Facebook @Able2travel and Able2Travel Now respectively. The best comments, tags, reposts and rehashes will be considered for the campaign.
For any organisation or individuals who wish to support this initiative in cash or product exchange, kindly email simon@thisability.co.za
