After eight years of helping disabled visitors find their way to and around Whistler, Hugh Tollett has finally secured an agreement that promises to return a bit of revenue for his efforts.
Tollett, the founder of the Whistler for the Disabled Society (WFTD) and creator of the website of the same name (www.whistlerforthedisabled.com), has reached an agreement with Tourism Whistler (TW) that aims to enhance the visitor experience in Whistler for those with disabilities.
The deal, announced in a joint statement last month, will see WFTD provide training to sales agents at TW and its central reservations service, Whistler.com, on providing accurate information and answering questions for those with disabilities. In return, WFTD and Whistler.com will share a percentage of the money generated by bookings for accessible travel to the resort.
Tollett, who founded WFTD in 2001 and has been adding new features periodically ever since, said in an email to The question that profits from the agreement will go back into supporting organizations that help disabled people in B.C.
“It will be great to have the support from Tourism Whistler and Whistler.com to help provide a team to back up all WFTD visitors’ requests for assistance with real people and a toll-free phone number their booking needs,” he wrote,
“I’m happy that this will free up some of my time and I can focus on the more difficult cases and continue my advocacy on a bigger scale in Vancouver and Whistler.”
In the past few years Tollett has played an important role in making Whistler more accessible to those with mobility challenges — through the website, through his work on the Whistler Accessibility Advisory Group and through his efforts to secure teletypewriter (TTY) public phones in the resort. The phones can be used by those such as himself who have hearing impairments.
While his efforts have been recognized both provincially and locally, and WFTD has received the support of Whistler Blackcomb (WB) and many others, the TW agreement marks the first time the support has come with a dollar value attached.
Arlene Schieven, TW vice-president of marketing, said the agreement should help make Whistler even more accessible and, in turn, increase the number of guests with disabilities coming to the resort.
“As a mountain destination focused on growing visitation, continually enhancing our accessibility is critical to our success,” she said in the statement. “We believe this agreement is a significant step towards promoting and delivering Whistler’s promise as an exciting and inclusive destination for travellers with disabilities — and the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games represent an extraordinary opportunity to showcase our commitment to that.”
Tollett said he has also been gratified by the “amazing” support for his efforts from the staff at WB. “I truly appreciate WB`s support from people like Wendy Aitken and all their staff who have gone all out for my visitors over the years. It is really nice to know that you can make suggestions and comments that will be listened to and help make the mountain experience something great.”
Last fall, WFTD also secured an official endorsement from the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) in the form of a link to the Vancouver2010.com website, making it an official provider for accessible tourism in Whistler. Immediately after that occurred, Tollett said he noticed a surge in the number of hits on his website — a surge he tracked back to Vancouver2010.com.
“It was truly incredible because I had nothing to do with it and still had no funding, nor was their any partnership in place with the stakeholders,” he wrote.
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