The Interview


Marina Snellenberg, Tui


The operator’s accessibility manager reveals how a more personalised approach to clients’ access needs adopted by Tui – sponsor of this accessible travel-themed special edition – is paying off. Samantha Mayling reports


A


ccepting the Unsung Hero honour at the Globe Travel Awards in


January, Tui’s accessibility manager Marina Snellenberg said: “I can’t imagine doing any other job; this is my vocation, my passion.” Her passion was fired by


experiences with her late husband Alex, driving her to embed accessible travel throughout the company. Having met while Marina


was working as cabin crew, Alex was later diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 30. Over the next five years, his health deteriorated, but the couple were determined to carry on travelling. “I experienced travelling with


someone who had needs, but also evolving needs: we started with a manual wheelchair, but ended up with a power chair, and him unable to speak,” she recalls. “When Alex passed away in 2016, I needed to share my insights. Because we’d made amazing memories with great


10 12 JUNE 2025


experiences, [I felt] others would be wanting the same. I approached Tui – it opened its doors and here we are, eight years later.” Snellenberg’s first aim with


Tui UK & Ireland was to “bring everyone on board” and to define a “solid, accessible holiday strategy that not only delivers on this ingrained passion that we have – for our customers to live happy – but also delivers a commercial benefit for us as a business”. She says: “We want to do right


for all customers . . . those with access needs need a little more of a personalised approach. We want to make it easy, because sometimes it can be very difficult. “We don’t want to create


a separate, accessible holidays range . . . we’re embedding it into what we do and making sure we share as much information as possible ahead of booking. “Accessibility is very personal:


treatments happen; conditions deteriorate, unfortunately. So we moved away from labels. We don’t have a stamp on our websites – we have an information-


based approach embedded in the overall customer journey.”


Travel guides Tui partnered with accessibility surveyor AccessAble, which has created detailed access guides for more than 300 of Tui’s hotels. “It is a pan-disability information-


gathering exercise, including the steepness of ramps, contrast of colour on the walls, noise levels, seating, adapted rooms,” explains Snellenberg. “Those guides are available


throughout the customer journey. “With our website, you can


filter hotels with this accessibility information. For customers with access needs in their research phase, this information is almost their number-one search criterion, alongside destination and date.” The operator is also trialling


sensory rooms in two Tui Blue hotels this year, for guests with neurodivergent needs. AccessAble has also surveyed a


number of UK airports to produce guides for Tui customers. “We support [customers],


arranging airport assistance from start to finish,” she adds. “Our lovely airport representative team greet customers at check-in with bright Tui smiles on their back. “We can send sunflower


lanyards for free, ahead of travel, from our dedicated assisted travel team or retail shops. And we also ran training courses last year for cabin crew and pilots.” Snellenberg and her colleagues


are proud of their achievements, but she believes more can be done. “We haven’t reached the peak


yet,” she says. “Even if [businesses]


Selling holidays for the first time to families that maybe wouldn’t have thought it could be possible – that is almost the best gift


travelweekly.co.uk


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