Global Ballooning, the hot air ballooning business run by Greek Australian Despina Karatzias, has been awarded the Business and Community Supporting Disability Award at the Victoria Disability Sector awards.
The company was awarded for ensuring their services can be accessible to the disabled community.
Their easy access basket has enabled a huge number of disabled children and adults to enjoy the thrill and awe of hot air ballooning.
It’s something Ms Karatzias wanted to cater to, seeing the lack of options and support in travel industry for the disabled.
“Living with a disability means one cannot be spontaneous in their travel arrangements and requires clear information on the type of access and facilities,” she said on her website.
“Accessibility is about basic human rights. Accessibility is about inclusion.”
She implored the business community to consider ways to better service the community and be much more inclusive.
“Next time you get in a room with other operators or catch up with colleagues at a tourism networking function, put this question on your agenda: ‘How can we do more in the community?'” she says.
Global Ballooning was nominated for the award by Scope Victoria and shared the final award with lawyers Burt and Davies.
Ms Karatzias started at the hot air ballooning company 20 years ago and services the city of Melbourne and the Yarra Valley.
She now networks with trade missions and export industries as well, and has released a book on her experiences called Adventures of a Ballooning Girl.