Participation of people with allergy in Tourism

Abstract
This paper explores how people with allergy affected in tourism and seek for any improvements in tourism industry aim tourism to be more inclusive for everyone.

Key words
Allergy, Training, Hotel, Restaurant, Airline, Anaphylaxis, Epinephrine

Discussion
Tourism should be inclusive for everyone have different race, sexuality, and invisible/visible disability. Allergy is one of the most common disorders globally. Nowadays, there is 20 % of population in most developed countries suffer from allergy. (Pawankar, 2013) Allergy is disorder one’s body react to normally harmless molecule, the reaction is varied between individuals. Allergy with serious reaction gave anxiousness to patients on traveling. Traveling bring the change of their emotional stress and disruption of routine, which can urge anaphylaxis. (Estelle, 2011) To calm their future anxiousness, problem they encounter while traveling and current consideration in tourism sector will be discussed.

Coping allergy, exclusion of allergen is the best solution. In lot of restaurants, while workers are willing to help them when they are asked, lack of appropriate knowledge to eliminate allergen perfectly from their meal was revealed. And the training was not executed efficiently because of costs and short-term staffing. (Soon, 2020) In full serviced airlines, lot of them serving fight meal to meet variety of dietary include religious, medical, and allergy. It is mostly available by contacting by phone at least 24 hours before boarding, and confirmation to cabin crew is required separately onboarding. Although they are offering allergy-free meals, the availability and the perfect safety are not promised by airlines. Some airlines offer ‘buffer zone’ not serving the allergen in front and behind their seats or let the passenger with allergy board earlier to wipe their seats, while some airlines limit these offers for only peanuts allergic, or completely not available. In hotels, 38% of the hotel in USA serving room with hypoallergenic with special cleaning no matter how many stars they are graded. The number of them is increasing, yet they still need to figure out carefully for booking, extra time and expenses may needed (Yu, 2011).

The fact that they have allergy affects their determination in tourism. Pollen allergy made 40% of people in the UK to avoid the destination or season with pollen, 15% of them feel not leave their house. According to Kwon and Lee (2012), coeliac disease caused 68% of people not to dine out and 53% avoided travel. Additionally, 98% of people with food allergy feel anxiety while traveling while 66% of them feel ‘a lot’ of anxiety (Warren, 2023). And it is reported they feel allergy-free food tend to be overpriced as it assumed fashionable preference, and not professional taste as other foods in events. (Weber & Lugosi, 2021).

Travelers with allergy are strongly encouraged to bring their medication and epinephrine, to treat their reaction themselves. For food allergy, bringing card to explain the allergen they need to remove in English and translated local language is also encouraged. As it previously discussed, people with severe allergy reaction require to spend more time to see the safety carefully and they need to repeat confirming while traveling.

Lack of knowledge to remove allergen and to deal with their reaction, and the process of booking make their anxiety before and while traveling. Moreover, the difference between countries confuses them. More appropriate understanding and consideration will make tourism be inclusive with people with allergy.

References:
Estelle, F. et al. (2011) World Allergy Organization anaphylaxis guidelines Summary, Special Selection; Food Allergy, Vol. 127, Issue 3, Page 587-593, Available from https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(11)00128-X/fulltext [Accessed on 19 May 2024]
Kwon, J. Lee, Y.M. (2012) Exploration of past experiences, attitudes and preventive behaviors of consumers with food allergies about dining out: A focus group study Food Protection Trends
Pawankar, R. (2014) Allergic diseases and asthma: a global public health concern and a call to action, World Allergy Organ j, Vol.7, Issue 1, Page 12, Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4045871/ [Accessed on 15 May 2024]
Soon, J.M. (2020). ‘Food allergy? Ask before you eat’: Current food allergy training and future training needs in food services. Food control, vol 112. Available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713520300451 [accessed on 22 April 2024]
Umeed, M. (2012). Travelling with allergies. Practice Nurse, vol 42, Issue 9, page 26-30. Available from https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=ae59f121-6fe3-4597-b7ec-4b04f92cd8e9%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=76319629&db=a9h [accessed on 23 April 2024]
Warren, C. et al. (2023) Understanding experiences, barriers, and facilitators of safe airline travel---A global survey of food allergy patients and caregivers, The journal of allergy and clinical immunology, Volume 151, Issue2.Available from https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(22)02453-8/fulltext [Accessed on 18 May 2024]
Weber, L., Lugosi, P. (2021). The event experience of attendees with food allergies, intolerances and coeliac disease: risk loaded value-creation/destruction. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, vol 12, Issue 2, Page 184-203. Available from http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/10.1108/IJEFM-11-2020-0066 [accessed on 23 April 2024]
Yu, R. (2011) Hotel court allergy sufferers; Some rooms ‘hypoallergenic’. USA TODAY, May 3, 2011 Tuesday, Final edition, Money;Pg.3B. Available from https://advance-lexis-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=75f31cc5-41c1-4c5b-8f2b-24b816340bbc&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A52SB-R641-DYRR-94PW-00000-00&pdcontentcomponentid=8213&pdteaserkey=sr0&pditab=allpods&ecomp=hmnyk&earg=sr0&prid=5f7175eb-2704-4f63-b90a-8d579cb381a5 [accessed on 22 April 2024]

The topic chosen; I personally find interesting as it doesn’t seem to be a topic discussed as much as it should be, as said there is a lack of knowledge when it comes to allergies and allergen reactions. The discussion paper is prioritised towards airlines, restaurants, and hotels as well as the main topic being based around food allergies. The discussion paper fits well into the stand 1, as it goes into detail of everyday complexities being ‘allergies’ as well as how this affects ones lived tourism experience mentioning statistics on how people with allergies view tourism.

As mentioned, due to most places not understanding how to deal with an allergen reaction results in more anxiety than one without. Reason to why it’s so important for people to know how to cater to one’s allergies is due to, if they are in contact with their allergy, it may result in an anaphylaxis shock, to which (Allergy&AshthmaNetwork, undated) had found, 25% of server reactions occur without prior diagnoses, furthermore 225 fatalities occur per year because of an anaphylaxis shock.

However, a recommendation for the future is to maybe focus on lesser-known allergies or mentions, this would be able to increase knowledge of said allergies that most people are not particularly aware of. Moreover, (Allergy&AshthmaNetwork, undated) had found that food allergies account for 31% of an anaphylaxis shock, medication accounts for 34% and insect Stings account for 20%.

Even if food-based services understand allergies and the consequences of someone consuming that allergen, unfortunately there can still be problems that arise. In 2023, a luxury London hotel had been fined £70,000 for a nut allergy breach. This hotel had served a dessert containing pistachios, almonds, and hazelnuts. The customer was admitted into hospital after having an anaphylaxis shock, this happened even though the customer had specifically told the hotel about her nut allergy. However, the situation occurred due to the supplier not informing the hotel that the dessert had contained nuts to which the hotel had relied on. This is just an example of why it is important for restaurants and food suppliers to take food allergies seriously and ensuring that customers are given accurate information about the ingredients in the foods they serve (Anaphylaxis, 2023). This is just one example of, because of the lack of care and lack of knowledge had ruined a person’s experience.

Overall, this discussion paper provides an essential understanding of why allergies need to be spoken about more. Hopefully, this commentary can give more reason to why it should be spoken about more, by also using an in real life case.

Allergy&AshthmaNetwork (undated) Anaphylaxis statistics. Allergy&AshthmaNetwork. Available from https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/anaphylaxis/anaphylaxis-statistics/ [Accessed 23rd May 2024].
Anaphylaxis (2023) Luxury London Hotel Fined £70,000 For Nut Allergy Breach. Anaphylaxis. Available from https://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk/luxury-london-hotel-fined-70000-for-nut-allergy-breach/#:~:text=The%20Strand%20Palace%20Hotel%20in,was%20served%20at%20the%20hotel. [Accessed 23rd May 2024].