Travel businesses are missing out on millions in revenue because their websites are nearly impossible for disabled people to use.

Accessibility in online environments has been assessed by two key players – WebAIM, a nonprofit focused on enhancing the web experience for users with disabilities, and AudioEye, a company specialising in digital accessibility.

Both reports cite travel websites as some of the worst offenders when it comes to accessibility.

WebAIM’s ‘Million’ report assessed accessibility across the top 1,000,000 websites and found that, overall, travel websites had almost 60 errors on their homepage, a 17 per cent increase from last year.

AudioEye’s Digital Accessibility Index identified issues too, with poor colour contrast, vague links and inaccessible forms cited as the most common errors.

The World Health Organisation says one in six of the global population lives with some form of disability. At least 2.2 billion people have a visual impairment, with almost 400 million estimated to have a severe challenge with vision. An estimated 43 million people are registered as blind.

“With around 20 per cent of the population reporting a disability, ignoring accessibility barriers can have a negative impact on a large population of potential customers and site visitors,” Jared Smith, executive director of WebAIM, explains to Euronews Travel.

Much research has been done on the value of catering to disabled travelers. In the UK, the spending power of those with disabilities, known as the ‘purple pound,’ is estimated to exceed £50 billion (€58) in 2025.

“Web accessibility is not only the right thing to do, it is also required by law,” Smith notes. “Because most travel websites have significant accessibility barriers, users with disabilities will spend their time and money at sites that have addressed accessibility issues.”

The best and worst travel websites for accessibility

Booking.com is the most visited travel website in the world, with over 500 million monthly visits. Yet it ranked 712,074th out of the million websites assessed, by far the lowest ranking out of all the major travel companies. Booking.com did not respond to a request for comment.

Airbnb and Trip.com came in around halfway down the ranking, while Agoda ranked 377,532nd. The travel companies doing the best included Uber, ranking just over 8,000th, and Skyscanner, coming in at 1,113th.

For most of the errors detected, the most common problem was low contrast text, detected on 79.1 per cent of the homepages checked. Not providing ‘alternative text’ on images – a sentence describing what the image contains – was a problem for more than half the websites.

Other common issues included missing labels for form inputs, empty links and empty buttons, all of which can make it hard for a visually impaired person to understand the content.

Research from AudioEye found that 41 per cent of travel and hospitality websites made it hard for keyboard-only users to navigate, find information and make bookings. The report also found that colour contrast issues were highest in travel and hospitality across all business segments.

Visually impaired users find it almost impossible to book travel online

Lucy Edwards lost sight in her right eye at age 11 due to a genetic condition. She lost the remainder of her sight at 17. Today, she’s an award-winning presenter, author and disability activist, committed to inclusivity across all industries.

“Travel websites are almost always inaccessible,” Lucy tells Euronews Travel. “Images are not described via text, so I rely on my friends, family, and Husband to describe the beautiful scenes to me.”

But it’s not just the beautiful travel images that people like Lucy miss out on. Problems arise when it comes to booking the trip when websites aren’t formatted for accessible reading.

“It’s so infrequent that I can book a holiday independently,” Lucy says. “I’m always afraid I will book something wrong because there are so many pop-ups that disable my screen reader.”

Screen readers are pieces of software that convert the text displayed on a computer screen into speech or, in some cases, even Braille. It’s a crucial piece of technology in enabling users with visual impairments or learning disabilities to access and interact with digital content.

“Websites as a whole do not cater for screen reader users,” Lucy explains. “As a blind person, I feel frustrated every single day browsing the web.”

The law is changing around website accessibility

The European Accessibility Act (EEA) will come into force on 28 June this year. It sets out standards across EU member states, aiming to remove barriers and ensure that people with disabilities can participate fully in society.

While the EEA applies to more than just websites, a key component is making all websites trading in the EU accessible to everyone. Any company either based in the EU or that does business within the EU with at least 10 employees and a €2 million plus turnover will be expected to comply.

Specifically, the law requires all websites to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for every user. It uses standards set out by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, commonly called WCAG, as a minimum requirement.

In its most basic form of implementation, WCAG requires readable fonts with high contrast colour schemes, clear navigation with descriptive links, alternative text to be included for all images and video captions, and ensuring all interactive elements are keyboard accessible.

Noncompliant companies could face fines and legal action, exclusion from procurement activities and negative publicity.

“Overall the [web] experience has left me in tears,” Lucy confides to Euronews Travel. “I’m so lucky that I have sighted help, but it shouldn’t have to be this way.”

Clearly, the EU agrees with this and is poised to make it uncomfortable for nonconforming businesses. With the EEA just weeks away, it’s time for travel firms to step up their game and make planning, booking and experiencing travel something everyone can enjoy.

Norway has updated its plans for a visitor tax that hopes to tackle the negative effects of overtourism.

The government has announced it is lowering the proposed fee that local authorities will be able to charge tourists.

Minister of Trade and Industry Cecilie Myrseth has confirmed the tax will now be three per cent of the cost of an overnight stay – instead of five per cent.

Norway is experiencing a surge in arrivals as holidaymakers seek cooler climes, hitting a record-breaking 16.7 million overnight stays during the summer months of 2024.

Norway is bringing in a tourist tax

Norway’s tourist tax will be an optional charge that can be levied at the discretion of local authorities.

The revenue will be used to fund projects that will benefit both residents and tourists, such as maintaining hiking trails and installing public toilets.

If implemented by a municipality, the levy will apply to visitors staying in all overnight accommodation, including hotels, hostels, campsites and short-term rentals.

Local authorities can also adjust the fee depending on the season, Myrseth confirmed.

“It is not the case that we have year-round tourism throughout the country, but in some places, there are parts of the year that are particularly demanding, and the expenses that the residents have to pay for are particularly high,” Myserth told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

At the moment, there is no fixed date for the introduction of the visitor fee, though reports say it may come in as early as this summer.

The government still needs to have the bill detailing the tax approved by parliament, but several parties appear to be in opposition to the new levy.

The travel and tourism branch of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) has warned it could put tourists off visiting the destination.

“We are now in a very serious situation. Introducing the tourist tax now is, in any case, madness,” a spokesperson from the NHO told NRK earlier this week.

The proposed tax has also been criticised for only targeting overnight visitors, leaving cruise passengers, day-trippers, and campervanners staying overnight in free public areas not required to pay.

Opponents argue that these are some of the most damaging kinds of visitors, particularly in frequently overwhelmed cruise destinations like the Lofoten Islands and Geiranger fjord.

Norway is experiencing a tourism surge

The Norwegian government has been mulling the introduction of a tourist tax for several years in reaction to surging visitor numbers.

Sweltering temperatures in traditional summer destinations like Italy and Spain are driving a trend for ‘coolcations’ in northern Europe.

Bolstering this is the rising interest in experiencing after-dark phenomena – dubbed ‘noctourism’ – such as the northern lights.

Norway is considered one of the best places for aurora-chasing, and the celestial spectacle is proving to be particularly visible in 2025.

There’s nothing more frustrating than arriving at your destination and discovering your bag didn’t make it.

In 2024, over 36 million bags were mishandled by airlines – either lost, stolen or damaged. That’s around seven bags for every thousand checked in. While many bags are ultimately reunited with their owner, a small percentage are lost forever.

Most bags contain nothing more than mundane items of clothing and a few toiletries. But some people travel with much stranger belongings – a suit of armour, a toilet seat, and even a glass eye have all been retrieved from lost bags over the past year.

According to Unclaimed Baggage, a US-based retailer that sells items from unclaimed airline luggage, these odd items are just the tip of the iceberg. Its Found Report uncovers the strangest, most expensive and most commonly lost items reclaimed from airline baggage.

“Since 1970, we’ve unpacked more than just belongings—we’ve discovered the unique stories behind travellers’ journeys,” said CEO & President Bryan Owens. “From the most valuable to the trendy, the ‘Found Report’ gives readers a first-class seat to the most compelling tales uncovered from the previous year.”

Weird and wonderful finds that boggle the mind

Some of the items found by Unclaimed Baggage in travellers’ suitcases last year are head-scratchingly strange.

Take, for instance, the full breastplate from a medieval suit of armour or the Roman soldier’s helmet. The company didn’t say if these came out of the same bag, but given they’re from different historical periods, they probably didn’t – no self-respecting live-action role-player would dare mix up their eras.

One bag contained a freeze-dried chicken’s foot, which you could wash down with a jar of whiskey containing a preserved rattlesnake from another. If that creeps you out, how about opening a bag to find no clothes, no toothpaste, just dozens of enormous spiders and beetles preserved in cases.

Historical items were flying around the world more than you’d expect. Passengers’ luggage contained all sorts of ancient treasures, from an antique mustache curler to a decades-old magician’s hat.

Probably the most disturbing find, however, was an antique French book on performing exorcisms. Who knows what the ultimate intent for that particular item would have been?

And then there was the just plain weird – a silicon pregnancy belly, a pair of silicone butt pads and a full set of dentures complete with tooth jewels.

One bag in particular had the Unclaimed Baggage workers hot under the collar. The team said, “There are heavy bags, and then there was this bag.”

When the heavyweight suitcase was hauled in to be unpacked, workers were eager to see what was inside. Gold bars? Ancient artefacts? Something special for sure, given its ridiculous weight.

Sadly, the case opened to reveal… rocks. Nothing else. Just rocks. Perhaps this was a misguided geologist’s collection or some strange attempt at weight training, but we’ll never know.

High class luxuries in unclaimed baggage

Not all the items recovered were just plain weird – some were weirdly expensive, raising questions about why people wouldn’t try harder to track them down.

The most expensive item found in an unclaimed bag was an 18-karat white gold solitaire diamond ring, thought to be worth around $39,000 (€34,000). There was also a gold President Oyster Rolex watch, valued at around $20,000 (€17,500).

Among the other lost luxuries were designer garments from the likes of Chanel and Alexander McQueen worth thousands, and pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage that on their own would fetch more than $10k (€17,500+).

Expensive cameras, designer dog carriers and a $7,000 (€6,200) handmade flute all came out of lost bags last year too.

What else do we leave behind on our travels?

It’s not only lost luggage from airlines that tell a tale about how we travel today. Uber’s annual lost and found index, also released this week, details what its drivers find left behind in their cars.

Predictably, the most commonly lost items include phones, wallets, keys and headphones. An incredible 1.7 million phones were left in rideshare cars last year, and more than 70 Nintendo Switch consoles.

But those aren’t the strangest things Uber drivers have found, not by a long way. Among the most ‘unique’ finds were a chainsaw, a DNA testing kit, 10 live lobsters and a urinal.

Apparently we’re prone to leaving things in hotel rooms, too. Hotels.com released its ‘Innsights’ report last year, revealing a car tyre, an engagement ring, a tooth, two full-leg casts, stacks of cash, a pet lizard, and a chick were all among the items forgotten by travellers when they checked out.

TFL, the company that runs the London public transport network, has a warehouse of unclaimed belongings and gets around 6,000 new items every week. Among these lost items have been a box of cooked frogs, a glass jar filled with bats, a Dalek costume and a puffer fish.

How to avoid losing your luggage

While the contents of some of these bags beg the question ‘why’, the fact remains that if you don’t want your weird travel companions to be discovered, don’t lose your bag.

Avoiding checking a bag in is a great strategy, as your luggage will stay with you at all times. Some airlines have quite generous allowances for carry-on baggage, so consider if you can avoid the unknown by travelling light.

If you do need to check in a bag, make sure you can spot it from a mile away. Bright straps, coloured ribbons and unique stickers will all help your luggage stand out on the carousel among all the other black cases.

Many lost bag incidents occur during connecting flights. If you can, choose a direct flight to minimise the chance of disruption during the connection.

For the ultimate peace of mind, Apple’s AirTag product has become a passenger favourite for keeping an eye on your bag. As they rely on Bluetooth via the ‘Find My’ network, tracking can be more reliable than GPS alone and can help you pinpoint a missing bag rapidly from anywhere in the world.

If the worst does happen and you become separated from your luggage, it’s essential to report it immediately to the company you were travelling with. For air travel, the airport will ask you to complete a Property Irregularity Report (PIR), which will generate a reference number to help you track progress.

While the airline is looking for your luggage, they will usually reimburse you for essential items you need to purchase, such as toiletries or clothes. If after 21 days the bag still hasn’t been found, you’ll be able to claim compensation.

Airlines have a maximum liability for lost luggage, typically around €1,600 per passenger, but it does vary. Any unclaimed luggage is usually sold, donated or disposed of.

In the US, airlines will search for the owners of bags for 90 days, but if the luggage is still unclaimed by that point, it ends up with Unclaimed Baggage at its store in Scottsboro, Alabama. The contents are catalogued and either placed for sale in its retail store, repurposed for charity or recycled.

Ultimately, you can spare yourself the grief of losing a treasured possession by simply not travelling with it at all. While you might love them very much, it’s probably best to leave the armor, arachnids, and ancient artefacts where they belong—safely at home.