The Leisure and Recreation Market

3248 Words7 Pages

This Review defines some of the areas of the leisure and recreation

market.

Introduction

The universally recognised definition of leisure and recreation is:

Leisure - is a period of time and Recreation - an activity that you

participate in during leisure time. This Review defines some of the

areas of the leisure and recreation market.

Media consumption and reading; listening to music at home

Gardening and do-it-yourself (DIY)

Sports and keeping fit

Catering (eating and drinking outside the home) and gambling

Cinema, theatre, museums and 'the arts'

Tourist attractions and short breaks (although long holidays or any

trips abroad have been excluded).

There are many more which could be added to this list. Shown below are

things, which are pivotal factors within the leisure and recreation

industry. They can either generate large sums of money or cause the

industry to lose money, depending on what changes occur in these

subsections. For example if there is an increase in disposable income

and leisure time the recreation industry will benefit from this as

people will want to do something in their spare time and with more of

a disposable income they will be able to spend more.

There are many defining factors, which influence trends in the leisure

and recreation business, many of which are mentioned below in detail.

Increase in leisure time

The amount of leisure time available to the majority of people in the

UK increased steadily up to the early 1970s, but has levelled off

since then. It is estimated that by the early 1970s 19% of the year

was spent at leisure by the UK population. The main reasons were

increasing amounts of paid annual holiday entitlement, and a gradual

reduction in the working hours for the majority of workers. Since the

1970s other factors have had a greater influence on the availability

of time for leisure pursuits, such as:

· Flexible work patterns and/or shift work for many workers

· Wide spread use of labour-saving devices

· Increasing numbers of unemployed and retired in the population

42% of all free time is now in the hands of adults who spend none of

their time in paid employment, these people are either unemployed,

part-time workers, retired or children.

There has been a major increase in the time available for leisure for

people in full time work since 1971, and it is not predicted to change

much between 1996-2001, which it has not the trend has continued.

However the percentage of part-time workers inside the UK workforce

will have doubled by 2001, this is prediction has occurred as the

amount of part time workers within the UK has risen by over 50%.

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