BLOOM

Designing Trust Into Accessible Travel

What began as an accessibility information problem quickly proved to be something else. Research with travelers, associations, and tourism providers revealed that information already existed, but it wasn't organized in a way that people could trust when making booking decisions. The real challenge wasn't collecting more data. It was bridging the gap between trusted expertise and the booking experience.

That insight shifted the project away from improving travel platforms and toward redesigning the ecosystem itself. Instead of treating associations as passive advocates, BLOOM positioned them as trusted knowledge hubs that contribute experience-based recommendations, matched to each traveler's individual accessibility needs.

The platform creates value for every stakeholder. Travelers gain confidence to book, tourism providers receive richer accessibility insights, and associations are rewarded through a revenue model that incentivizes them to continuously expand and maintain high-quality information. Rather than adding another accessibility feature, BLOOM proposes a self-reinforcing system where trust becomes the foundation of the travel experience.