Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
A Community Impact Story
Visit Myrtle Beach: Transforming Into a Sensory-Friendly Destination
Social Impact Framework: Accessibility
What was the issue you were trying to address?
At Visit Myrtle Beach, we wanted to encourage more families with children on the spectrum to consider traveling. Families with children diagnosed with autism often feel as though vacations are out of their reach. Many are afraid of the lack of acceptance and accessibility in an unfamiliar setting. According to a survey conducted by IBCCES, 87% of autism families do not take a family vacation.
Our mission is to make a difference in the lives of autism families by encouraging them to give travel a chance. By educating frontline workers in the travel industry, and by raising awareness of autism-friendly resources that are available in the Myrtle Beach area, we hope to continue to make a positive impact.
What were the stated objectives of this initiative?
Our objectives were twofold:
- To encourage travel and provide resources for people impacted by autism and other neuro-diversity conditions.
- To position the Myrtle Beach area as a leader in sensory-friendly travel by providing an experience that caters to the specific needs of this community.
What were the specific metrics you used to measure the success of your efforts?
We partnered with the Champion Autism Network and TravelAbility to launch a new program named "The Beach is for everyBODY: Sensory Friendly Pledge" with the goal of fostering awareness and encouraging participation within our local community. Through these initiatives, we measured the number of restaurants, attractions, and hotels who were engaged.
The pledge, along with several resources for Autism families can be found here.
What were the specific outcomes and results of your efforts?
Our sensory friendly pledge was taken by over 150 local tourism businesses. Their employees, employees at Visit Myrtle Beach, and our agency partners all completed Autism-awareness training through the Champion Autism Network. This training equips us to collectively serve the autism community with marketing initiatives.
Many of the 150 businesses took proactive measures to enhance their products, generating significant good-will within residents and visitors in the autism community.
Examples included several attractions offering sensory-friendly hours where lights and noises were adjusted, restaurants providing to-go boxes and the check as soon as meals were placed, and accommodations offering special offers and discounts.
We also worked with content creators from the autism community to visit the area and document their experiences. This yielded hundreds of thousands of positive impressions of the area.
What other best practices or key lessons can you share?
Visit Myrtle Beach has released several more sensory-friendly initiatives in 2024, including a children's book entitled ‘Splish, Splash, Squark: Finding Joy in a Sensory-Friendly Vacation’, and a television show, Traveling the Spectrum, which will launch on a major streaming platform this fall. We are just getting started as we see this program as the catalyst to promote accessibility and mobility to visitors.
More information on “Splish, Squash, Squark: Finding Joy in a Sensory-Friendly Vacation” can be found here and can be purchased here.
More information on Traveling the Spectrum can be found here and on Instagram.
Stuart is the Chief Marketing Officer at Visit Myrtle Beach, where he’s focused on redefining destination marketing and challenging the traditional DMO playbook. A native of England with a degree in Rocket Science from the University of Kent, he brings a scientific and innovative approach to creating strategies that resonate with today’s travelers. As the host of Destination Discourse and a member of the Advisory Council for TravelAbility, Stuart is passionate about pushing the industry forward and advocating for greater inclusivity in tourism.