Introduction
Since 2022, Veroniek Maat has been working as a researcher and project officer at the Research Group New Urban Tourism at Hogeschool Inholland. She also served as a learning coach within the Tourism Management programme. In January 2026, she began a Professional Doctorate programme, focusing on how the tourism sector can better support travellers with disabilities and their care networks. Through design-based research, she explores the field and implements interventions that advance knowledge, develop co-design tools, and deepen understanding of the customer journey and collaboration.
Her expertise is rooted in the travel industry. In 2010, she founded Accessible Travel Netherlands, a company offering accessible tours in and around Amsterdam for international travellers with physical or visual disabilities. In 2020, she transferred the business and continued working as a consultant. Between 2010 and 2022, she contributed to various EU-funded projects and nationally subsidised initiatives, all aimed at making tourism and recreation more accessible for people with disabilities.
What began as a personal mission in 2010 has evolved into a practically and scientifically grounded pursuit of more inclusive tourism.
Collaboration
For her research, Veroniek collaborates with ANVR, Platform Aangepaste Vakanties (Adapted Holidays Platform), and travellers with lived experience. The platform brings together travel organisations specialising in adapted and accessible travel. She also works with the Tourism Management programme at Hogeschool Inholland to integrate accessible and inclusive tourism into the curriculum.
An accessible travel industry for people with disabilities
Travelling with a disability is still far from straightforward. Accommodations, restaurants and attractions are often poorly accessible, information about physical barriers is lacking or inaccessible to people with visual impairments, and the costs of assistance and aids quickly add up.
In her Professional Doctorate programme, Veroniek focuses on designing and testing interventions that contribute to more accessible and inclusive travel experiences for people with disabilities. She explores how the tourism chain — from booking to destination to post-trip reflection — can better collaborate with care and mobility partners.
"Many people aren't aware of the challenges faced by people with disabilities. But once you see it, you can't unsee it. My hope lies in the transformation tourism is already undergoing — shifting focus from the masses to the individual. Accessible travel for everyone is part of that.
- Veroniek Maat, Professional Doctorate researcher New Urban Tourism
