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Visit Scotland | Alba
Article published 07/12/2022

Inclusive tourism | Making everyone feel welcome

As a royal residence for over 40 years, The Royal Yacht Britannia sailed over 1,000,000 nautical miles on 968 state visits with the Royal Family.

Today, berthed in the historic Port of Leith, Edinburgh, visitors can discover what life was like during royal service on board HM Queen Elizabeth II's former floating palace.

The Royal Yacht Britannia is accredited as a VisitScotland five-star visitor attraction.

As with all visitor attractions in our Quality Assurance Scheme, the theme of inclusivity is scored as part of their grading assessment under the core experience section. The Royal Yacht Britannia has achieved full marks in this section, with a significant effort being made to make everyone feel welcome. They offer:

  • Complimentary self-led audio guided tour in over 30 languages (Check out which languages are on offer)
  • Children's version of the audio tour
  • Visually impaired audio guide, braille script, ASL and BSL tablets

 

Priding themselves on their dedication to inclusive tourism, their marketing director Casey Rust shares why inclusivity is at the heart of their offering.

"As a five-star, award-winning attraction (Best UK attraction – Which Magazine readers), our ethos is to provide a great day out that is value for time, as well as money. All our visitors should have the same, consistent experience.

We are on a journey and are always learning and adding to the visitor experience. For example, when we redeveloped our website our primary focus was to build it based on the user experience and every effort was made to make it as inclusive as possible.

We recognise the need to provide comprehensive pre-arrival information so that all of our guests know exactly what to expect in advance.

Check out our dedicated accessibility page, which  covers what we offer, and we are happy to discuss any specific needs and offer extra assistance where we can.

We also provide the option to download our access statement which details in full information on accessibility at Britannia, from arriving at Ocean Terminal to the facilities on board."

"Showcasing that we are inclusive sends a positive message to visitors and enhances the customer experience. In turn, we find that it helps contribute to positive feedback from visitors.

 

It is a journey, so my top tip would be to start small with some quick wins and build from there.”

The royal yacht is highly accessible for wheelchair users and those with specific access needs: