The 5 leisure and recreation facilities are listed hereunder:
- Dreamland Cinema
- Bugsy’s Bowling Centre
- Planet Laser
- Lido Snooker Club
- Pool Land Club
Initially let us begin with a breakdown of the demographic changes from several Mintel reports
Source National Statistics Website
These statistics were retrieved from the ONS website. The figure are meant to be true for the time they were taken and may not be true figures today. Though the percentages will be roughly correct.
I think that Dreamland fun park targets teenagers. Since this audience has spare time and they show an interest to view, and occasionally have the money to watch movies. Their demographic aim is the 12-25 age group as this is who the movie makers aim their movies are aimed at. But this information is all dependant on the genre of movies being released by the movie producers. So as I have identified the market of the cinema is determined by the movie makers such as Hollywood. The present market can easily change if the movie makers find out that they will make more money if they change the target market.
Bugsy’s bowling alleys target most age groups. They can use the above information, as bowling is a sport played by all ages whether male or female but predominantly male, to advertise the venue in various locations and ways for example, if in an area there are many young children than it will be financially viable to affiliate the clubs to a school, or if in an area there are many workers than it will be viable to advertise discounts for such people, this has happened in the Pfizer ground. They can aim at the young ages such as 10 and above as at this age children are still forming their social trends.
Planet Lasers demographic aim should be the 15-25 age groups as they can afford the time and money to go out. This company can use this information for itself very easily because it can see in the birth records and confidently predict and advertise for the younger generations to come and play.
Lido Snooker club does not really need to use this information as majority of players are their members. For them demography will only effect them in the long run or if the young population begin to move out of the locality.
Pool land club relies desperately on the local demography as its players are generally young and as pool is a very common game its use is available in various facilities so, they may require a large turnover of young player ranging from 15-21 years old.
This research show that the need to constantly review the local demography is fairly important to many businesses.
5. Technological Developments
Two major developments from 1960’s are cars and TV. Since 1960 we can clearly see cars becoming an essential part of a persons life, a whopping 75% of households have access to a car now. Televisions are owned by almost all households, this has become one of societies norm. The newest form of TV at present is the satellite systems, digital satellite and digital TV.
Technological advancements have created endless opportunities for in-home and outside the home leisure activities. Advancements in micro-electronics since 1980’s have led to numerous small items to be made, being small gave way to becoming easier to carry and becoming portable. The following are examples of these:
- Walkman
- Discman
- Camcorders
- Laptops
- Portable DVD players
Technology provides opportunities for facilities to improve quality of their services being delivered to public by the use of digital machinery and internet based materials. Such as :
- Digital Speedometers
- Internet Cafes
- Vending Machines
These items are all a direct link to the advancements of technology.
The Leisure and Recreation market today is developing fast, due to the constant technological advancements.
In 20 years I believe that the internet will be widely used so much so that almost everyone will have access to it in their homes, in line with the government guidelines to be met by 2005, wide screen TV’s and DVD players should also become more popular and at least 70% of the British public would have one. Whilst that advancement will be taking place the VCR’s will be obsolete similar to the fate of the (Beta Max) Player.
I think that with the daily innovative ideas being tried in the motor industry we will be a huge leap closer to having personal space travel vehicles. The sale of semi solar powered cars will be increased, hence their prices will drop.
As now we are able to buy items in shops as well as online or through TV sets, we will be able to do our shopping on txt and WAP as easily. This will increase leisure and recreational time in great proportions as people will spend less time looking for better deals in shops.
In 50 Years it is believed that the laptop will become as sophisticated as the normal PC and will be as small as the basic mobile phone making it the ideal Mobile Computer Unit. The use for TV’s will almost be abolished as people will be able to watch anything they want on their mobiles. DVD player may be replaced with small compact memory saving units similar to game cards we have on consoles, this will enable us to watch movies.
The motor industry may evolve into a new age as did the steam engines to the combustion engines. This would make space travel affordable and open up new avenues to the Leisure and Recreation industry.
6. Government Legislation
The British local and national government has been promoting reasons for increase of sales since the 1960’s. This could have had a direct link to the outdated public amenities, and changing trends, both of these are valid reasons and have resulted in the addition and amendments to the legislations in place. Below I will select key legislation that I have thought significant for my point to be proven:
7. Changing Fashion Changes and Trends
Ever changing fashion and trends in UK is constant.
Since 1960’s Leisure and Recreation Industry has been effected by changing fashion trends. For example in the 1960’s fashion was that people listened to their radios in a family unit, similar to now family units watch TV together during their leisure time.
We in C21 are living healthier and fitter lifestyles in a prosperous society which is constantly changing and looking for greater experiences, greater the experience people get the greater our need for the next experience becomes.
The effects of changing fashion and trends in the leisure and recreation industry is clearly visible if we consider the developments of the following:
- All seater stadia
- Development of multi-leisure parks with shopping facilities
- The development of multiplex cinemas
- New high tech holiday camps
As these became popular, the older facilities had to compete so forcing them to change according to customer needs and upgrading.
The popularity of the holiday camp industry was due to the changing fashion trends. This can be a result of many different factors such as the following:
- The development of many City and Town Centre football stadia with purpose built all-seater stadia
- The attendance dropping at many shopping centres.
- The development of massive multi-leisure parks with a range of retail and leisure facilities.
- The increased attendance at health and fitness centres.
Key factor in the decline of the holiday camp industry was due to the open mocking, amateurish and downmarket portrayal of this part of the industry, in the soap called “Hi De Hi”.
The introduction of natural looking scenery and the picture of the ecology from the local area appealed to the new fashions. The primary format of swimming pools, mini golf, bars, discos, and night time entertainment are still being used but being re-vamped.
In the 1970’s a personal sport was peaking called “jogging” this sport became the target of various clothes designers who cashed in, and created various article of clothing that is now associated with Jogging. This was a male dominated sport that is done generally outside the house. Another sport that became popular to people as a fitness motivated sport was “squash”.
The two sports jogging + squash were both male dominated. Aerobic classes were started to satisfy the female demand for safe, social and indoors sport. The beginning of aerobic lead to the introduction of yoga.
The participation in team sports is a social necessity as in this way people are socialising along with becoming healthier and better at a sport.
Due to the significant injection of funds by government agencies and other organisations the leisure industry was able to update their resources and update their machinery to modernise.
5 major leisure and recreation providers are.
- Dreamland Theme Park
- Rotunda Theme Park
- Jackets
- Syndale Gym, Faversham
Dreamland theme park and Rotunda theme park has been effected by changing consumer needs and fashions since it has opened, the theme park has added many new rides that have been popular in other locations around UK some with other names, come of these additions are :
- The mouse trap
- The log drop
- Roller Coasters
These companies have since closed down and may now re open due to the changing needs and expectations of the industry.
Syndale Gym in Faversham has created a crèche for their customers, as they have customers who require their children to be looked after, while they are exercising. They also have a restaurant.
According to the research results provided by the Leisure Industry’s Research Centre and Mintel I will try to predict how the leisure industry will develop over the next 5 years.
The changes in the leisure and recreation market over the last five years should roughly predict how the leisure market will react over the next five years. In this chart I will show the two markets, Inside the home and the out side the home leisure market, this information was derived from my text book and was originally from the LIRC forecasts from 1999-2003.
The blue section is inside of the home
The maroon section is outside of the home.
Since 1999 through to 2003 I can clearly see that according to the LIRC report inside the home or home based leisure is a larger market and is used more frequently than the away from home leisure activities category.
According to the Mintel report 51% of adults claim to have less free time than 5 years ago and 44% of people say that they have increased spending power now than they had 5 years ago.
In this report I can clearly see that over the next 5 years the number of 15-24 year olds is due to rise, 25-34 year olds are due to fall by 10%, 35-44 year olds are due to increase. These changes will effect almost every industry. Here is an examples of how these figures will effect the leisure and recreation industry:
Night clubs and Discos
These facilities are generally attracting young people between the ages of 16-34 and if they wish to continue making a profit they will need to refocus their efforts on either the 15-24 age groups or try and attract the 35+ age group.
Summary
As we can see from above that commuting times are reduced due to the transport systems advancing, this coincided with the technological advancement and the demographic trends in the UK. The CCT system meant that competition became a key business strategy which lead prices of utilities to be reduced; for businesses and residential customers. Where prices where being reduced the household disposable income was increasing this could be a direct link to changes in the consumer fashion, though fashion is ever changing nonetheless. Overall the 1960’s lead to a massive change for the leisure and recreation industry.
In the development of the leisure and recreation industry there were several milestones, some of them are below
- First Motorway service station opened on M1
- First Legal Casino opened in Brighton
- Public libraries and museums act introduced
- National parks and access to the countryside introduced
- Development of tourism act
1969 Formation of national and regional tourist information
- Local government act
1972 Sports council established
- Video games invented
- First municipal lottery invented
- Walkman invented by Sony
- CD players introduced in the UK
- Department of National Heritage formed
- First National Lottery drawn
- Opening of the Millennium Dome
Significance of the Leisure and Recreation industry
As seen from the above work I have shown that the leisure and recreation industry is an ever growing industry; this means that it will be under immense competition and demand, traders will be competing for this below I will demonstrate its scale of significance. The structure of my work will contain the following sub headings:
- Consumer spending in the UK
- Employment Statistics
- Participation trends
- Cultural & Social significance
These all will show the economic standing of this industry in the UK and some sense of social issues surrounding the topic.
1. Consumer spending in UK
As we can see from the previous task average house hold disposable income has increased, this is being used in leisure product. This industry is a major contributor to the UK economy estimated at a current value of £147 billion per annum.
Government research shows that between 1995 and 1998 households in the UK spend 16% of their weekly budget on leisure goods and services. This figure has now changed and is 19% in the year 2002 and 2003.
There are 2 sectors where consumers can spend their money:
- Home based leisure activities
The home based leisure activities are those that we use inside the home such as the television or the radio, this also includes gardening equipment and DIY.
- Outside the home leisure activities
Outside the home leisure activities are those that are usually done outside the home such as; dining out or overseas holidays, gambling and alcohol is also included in this sector.
I am now going to show the amount of change there has been in consumer spending for the leisure activities from 1998 through to 2002.
In home
Outside the Home
These charts show that the way in which consumers are spending their money is changing, this could be a result of improved activities and mobility. Alternatively this could be a result of the new age of computing and world of console gaming; as seen from the ‘in home’ section the trend of staying indoors is catching, the news is continuously displaying warnings about obesity and the need to get out. Despite this the in home market is a growing market.
The biggest change is in the ‘in home leisure activities’ sector, I can see that consumers are buying TV sets. The conclusion I have derived is that the improved TV channels and the attraction to ‘sky TV’ are attracting a crowd as a source of leisure and entertainment in their own home, without a need to go out. This also applies to the increased purchases of radio sets, as radio is a personal source of media. This can be listened to almost anywhere; the creation of the walkman and the car radio have emphasised this.
The outdoor market is a growing market as well this can be summarised in three groupings which are set out by Mintel:
- Leisure Catering
- Leisure activities
- Leisure accommodation and tourism
These three markets alone were worth £60.252 billion in 1999.
Looking at the above figures tells me that this industry must be a real gold mine for the tax man who wants to charge as much as they can. This means that the real economic significance comes from the amount of tax the government receives from this industry as a whole; the taxes they will receive are the Local Government tax, Corporation Tax and VAT, combined these will raise billions of pounds of tax money and contribute heavily to the British economy.
For example in 1995 the sports council estimated that sports attracted £9.75 billion and so contributed £3.6 billion in tax.
2. Employment Statistics
From the last couple of pages we have seen that the leisure industry has been becoming larger since the 1960’s, this automatically means that the need for workers will also increase, hence a larger workforce will be required by the leisure and recreation industry. There are almost 50,000 new jobs opened annually in the Leisure and Recreation industry.
There are 2 classifications of employment in business, there are those who are paid and those who are unpaid. The paid employees are those who are paid either hourly, salaried or by contract. The unpaid workers are called voluntary workers.
In 1995 the leisure and recreation industry employed around 1.7 million people nationally. This accounted for 12% of the total UK work force. This industry therefore was regarded as a major provider of employment with around 50,000 jobs created annually. This industry is now hosting *** come back to
These are the figures of employment in 1998
This chart does not show the figures of voluntary workers, if voluntary workers were to be shown it is probable that the industry may be the largest employer in UK.
All the statistics above shown prove that the industry is growing and this means that jobs are being created annually, so the market is not yet saturated but soon will because Britain is only so big. The introduction of cheap foreign flights, ferries and trains will insure this soon to happen. The withdrawal of concord in 2001 has dampened this along with the terror threats looming on airlines, the heightened security has scared people from flying this is overall not good for world economy but can be used for the better interest of the British leisure and tourism economy.
Voluntary work is a large portion of this industry and usually is not counted due to a lack of need. They are dotted all over the industry from governing bodies through to sports and even in youth organisations. The value of this is very hard to determine due to the fact that numbers of volunteers in this industry is difficult to obtain. But is estimated at a 187190007 volunteers a year valued at £15,555,000,000 this has been calculated at a rate of £8.31 per hour for hours worked. This is truly a significant amount. If paid would surely deter organisers from arranging events.
3. Participation trends
Major in home leisure activities such as socialising with family and friends is extremely popular. Going out for a meal and a drink is most important out-side of the home leisure activity.
This is a chart showing the participation trends in 1986 and 1998 with these two figures I will estimate what the trend will be in 1993.
Pie Chart for home based leisure activities
Pie Chart for away from home leisure activities
Summing up the trends I can clearly see that the largest market is the in home entertainment market; this can be with friends and families, the largest out side the home market is the Eating out market so the Restaurants, Cafes and other food shops.
4. Cultural & Social significance
As seen from a day to day point of view we may not think that we are participation in a leisure and recreational activity but we actually are. Local communities and societies have embedded in their daily, weekly or monthly routines to visit facilities such as:
- Libraries
- Museums
- Pubs
- Sports Clubs
- Fitness Clubs
- Community Centres
These are part of our routines and are known as leisure facilities. In many towns and cities these are promoted by the local councils and national government to improve the standard and quality of life for the users. This can be done by providing funding or grants and also by approving for planning by the local government.
A major example of this is the sports centres that are part funded by councils to remain open for the use of the residents and community; as sports is a key route of staying fit and disciplining one self, this also helps build community spirit and promotes community interaction.
Summary
Consumer spending is increasing annually along with the employment in the Leisure and Recreation industry this in means that the quality will increase as the turnover will become faster and profit is made. Participation is dependant on the fashion at that time and this is indicating that in home leisure goods and less energy consuming goods are thriving.
As explained visits to the Pub and other routine places are common to the local culture and this is socially significant.
Structure of the Leisure and Recreation industry
Organisations in the Leisure and Recreation industry can be divided up into two initial groups; Publicly owned and Privately owned. We can further divide these up into commercial and voluntary entities.
Public Sector:
Organisations that are largely funded by the central or local government, they also influence the strategies, policies and admissions.
These services are provided for the public and collectively paid for by the government. Their operation is ultimately accountable to elected bodies including local councils and parliament. This sector is regarded as a ‘service provider’ rather than profit making.
Examples of this is:
- Central Government
- Department of Culture, Media and Sport
- Sports Councils
- Arts Council
- English Heritage
- Local Authorities
Central government
Department of culture, Media and Sport
Sports Councils
Arts Council
English Heritage
Local Authorities
List of leisure facilities
The information I will be providing will be from the English Heritage Council.
This council secures the conservation of England’s historic site, monuments, building and other sites of value to national heritage, such as the Historic Dock Yards Chatham.
The promotion of these sites to the public to enjoy and use, is not the only aim to which this organisation adhere to but they try to raise an understanding and awareness of the heritage.
The main source of finance of this organisation is DCMS, other methods of financing include marketing activities, admission fees, Membership fees and interest. In 1998-1999 the money raised from other sources of income was £28.3 million pounds. This is how this figure was reached
The local authority I have chosen to write about is the Knowsley Metropolitan Council. This authority is located in the to the south of Kirkby and north of Prescot. This village is in between A580 and A58 and to the right of the M57, as you can see on this map below
This local authority provides the following amenities:
The mission statement and objectives for this authority in relation to the provisions to the community is :
To provide relevant, affordable, accessible leisure services to the people of Knowsley and to contribute to the Councils other strategic objectives of economic development, education and health so as to improve the quality of life in the Borough.
This clearly means that this authority will provide for its public an affordable, accessible and to the point service that will benefit the councils plans for economic development.
The authority of Knowsley funds its provisions from the local taxes that it collects as I will show you in this selection
Provisions have been made relating to the following items and are included within appropriate Service lines.
Whitbread PLC is a company that owns many chain companies, this is a profit making company, they made a £418 million profit in 1999. Whitbread PLC began as a brewers company, but sold out and invested in leisure businesses, now Whitbread PLC has an extensive network of facilities from pubs to leisure centres. The table below highlights the size of Whitbread PLC:
Now that we can see how large this company is I will now show the annual accounts, retrieved from Mintel of Whitbread PLC
Above is a list of the voluntary organisations in my local area of Thanet. In the chart I have shown each sector and given two examples of that type of organisation.
Private Sector:
Companies that are directly or indirectly in private ownership and are in business to make a profit.
Companies in this sector have the main objective of making a profit either owned by individuals or companies this is their prime target.
Mainly the following are in the private sector:
- Retail Sales
- Catering and Accommodation
- Entertainment
- Home-based Leisure
- Health and Fitness
Partnerships
Private Limited companies
Public Limited companies
Co – operatives
Voluntary Sector:
Organisations that are managed and operated by volunteers. These are mainly non-profit making or charitable.
Mainly the following are in the voluntary sector:
- Youth and Community Groups
- Sports Clubs and Associations
- Conservation and Heritage Groups
- Touring Groups
- Social Clubs
- Arts Association
The above organisations can also be found in the Private sector, their aims and objectives will not be the same as the ones in the voluntary sector, for obvious financial reasons.
Organisations in this sector are purely here to provide a service or to achieve a purpose, similar to the Public sector but do not make a profit, if consequently one is made it will be spent in the purpose of the organisation, profits do not go to any share holders if any.
Components of the Leisure and Recreation industry
In this task I will identify the range of Public, Private and Voluntary sector organisations in each component of the industry, and evaluate their key characteristics to illustrate differences in there:
- Business Objectives
- Funding or Revenue generation
- Stakeholder or Shareholder expectations
I will explain this for a few companies in each area of the industry. There are 6 main areas of this industry and they are:
- Arts and Entertainment
- Sports and Physical recreation
- Heritage
- Catering
- Countryside Recreation
- Home-Based Leisure
1. Arts and Entertainment
There is a great market for the Arts and entertainment outside of the home in this day and age, as transports is cheap and access is easy. The overall atmosphere of watching a movie on the ‘big screen’ is what people are looking for when they go to watch movies at cinemas all over the UK. This is now; but previously going to the cinema was the only way to watch a movie. The advent of VCRs was a huge hit to the Cinema industry.
Since the advent of the cinema industry there have been customer to view movies but in 1946 the record of ticket sales was reached with 1,600,000,000,000 tickets sold, this was un matched by number of tickets sold in present times.
This chart shows above that the ticket sales are increasing steadily but may not reach the high as was in 1946, this high is now left behind due to the availability of VCRs, DVDs, VCDs and other movie players. The trend looks as if it will continue but this trend is dependant on the different movie making industries such as Hollywood and Bollywood the two largest movie making industries. If this trend is to continue then overall atmosphere should be changed, this has been done at Multiplex cinemas and IMAX cinemas. The multiplex cinemas have many screens upon which people can see different movies simultaneously. The IMAX cinemas have a system in place where people can feel the weather that is being displayed on screen.
The cinema industry is part of the private industry so making it profit making, this industry does not always make a profit. Some movies such as the new movie ‘Passion of the Christ’ are high profit making movies and some movies such as ‘Waterworld’ are flops. This makes this industry high risk and so means that some movies will be a loss and some movies will be profitable. The movies that are profitable must therefore make up for the losses that the flop movies cost.
Similarly Theatres and Concert halls are also in the same industry but this line of work is providing for a live audience, this is fairly outdated source of entertainment. So it is beneficial for this industry to belong to the public as a whole. A theatrical production can be displayed almost anywhere from an outdoor stage to a school hall and even in large halls.
Most of the well known theatres are privately owned, such as London Palladium and the concert venues at Wembley and Earl’s Court. This could be due to the fact that they are profit orientated and so are publicising these venues highly. In any case they have become very prestigious venues and now are worth substantially to the industry. In 1998 £257,900,000 was generated overall by the West end theatres by 11.9 million people using 16,000 performances that makes one performance worth on average £16118.75.
Millions of people visit art galleries and museums in the UK every year. Museums are run by organisations in the private, public and voluntary sector, although generally they are publicly owned such as the British museum and the National Gallery. One museum for example is the National Science Museum London this is a publicly owned museum that is non profit orientated it is part funded by the government and it raises the rest of the money through various fundraising activities such as ‘The Ring Exhibition’.
Recent research conducted my MORI shows that the popularity of museums is growing. The research highlights the fact that 35% of people went to a museum in 12 months and this figure is higher than any of the following; zoo, wildlife park, theatre, opera, ballet or a live sporting event. The fact that visitor numbers to museums are increasing seems to have a correlation to the withdrawal of the enterance fees that profit orientated museums charge, as now museums are slowly but steadily withdrawing these fees the visitor numbers will increase.
Museums provide a huge source of information and culture that if not found in museums may be lost, they provide a 1st hand experience of the past and what the future may hold. The museums provide the following type of information:
- Archaeology
- Art and Design
- Transport
- Maritime
- Personalities
- Weapons and War
- Natural History
- Science and Technology
- Social History
- National Collection
- Costume
- Archives
- World Culture
- Coins
- Music
There are 950 museums listed at the English Tourism Council each attracting around 5000 visitors each. London is a major centre for museums of all kinds with 47 public museums and galleries attracting 50,000 or more visitors a year. Outside London the largest museums are located in major cities such as Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Armouries in Leeds attracts around 1 million and 400,000 visitors each respectively in 1998-9.
Pubs and Clubs have become an important part of most Britons social lives. The local pub or social club is the central focal point for many communities. Clubs include night clubs, social clubs, bingo clubs, working men’s clubs and many others are a market specified at certain people so; night clubs are targeted at late teens to early twenties and bingo clubs are targeted mainly towards the older generations, this is soon to change as trends are showing that younger crowds are now also playing bingo regularly.
The public library system cover the whole of the UK now, there are libraries in Towns and in Cities. There is a library in each school and college, there are currently 4227 libraries and 663 mobile public libraries in the UK. These libraries attracted a massive 303 million people in 1999 alone. The funding of the libraries comes from the public sector, most of its income is from government.
Here is a chart to show how Libraries are funded
As we can see the main part income is generated from Overdue charges.
Theme Parks are part of this industry though sometimes they can be perceived as maybe physical due to people having to walk a lot. The word Theme Park describes an Action Packed Family-centred leisure entertainment complex. These are part of the Private sector as they are profit orientated. These include Amusement arcades, adventure playgrounds, computer simulations and laser games. They often have a variety of sports facilities, heritage activities, zoos and wildlife areas. Some of these are highly publicised such as Chessington World of Adventure and Alton Towers these are advertised on TV and can be found on the backs of receipts.
The number of visitors to theme parks are difficult to determine as some offer free admission, but it is estimated that over 37,000,000 visitors were attracted to theme parks in 1998. Some theme parks charge an ‘all in’ admission fee, this means that for normal rides there is no further fees to pay in the park; such as in Chessington World of Adventure where a fee of £19.95 is taken at the door and that is all we pay for the rides. In other places a fee is taken for each individual ride, so a person can pay less if they go on only 2 rides. In other places such as Dreamland – they have a all in price and a token system, in this a person is required to buy and wear a wrist band during their stay or pay with tokens at each ride.
The all in pricing system is a good system is we want to see statistics of population attracted. Whereas; the pay per ride system makes it difficult for these statistics to be drawn up. These statistics are vital for the businessmen who invest money into these risky ventures, as investments can sometimes be un successful and losses can amount to several millions of pounds. For example:
- Pepsi One Roller coaster £12,000,000
- Nemesis ride £10,000,000
These are two famous examples, these were somewhat successful. The most recent leisure park to be built was the Lego land Windsor, costing at around £85,000,000 it has in it 17 rides, 21 attractions and 5 live shows. The visitor numbers shows how successful it is in comparison to its competitors, it came 7th.
Here is a chart that shows the top 10 Leisure and Theme parks in the UK by visitor numbers in 1998:
This chart shows us that Blackpool Pleasure Beach is the biggest attraction for visitors – by a 100% difference, to its closest rival the Palace Pier Brighton.
2. Sports and physical recreation
The sports and physical recreation component of the leisure and recreation industry covers a broad range of facilities, events, products, services and activities. The growing interest in healthy lifestyle and the link with fitness and exercise have been a major influence on sports participation since 1980.
There are many facilities that are used for sports and physical activities, such as:
- Sports
- Leisure centres
- Ice Rinks
- Squash
- Swimming Pools
- Fitness Centres
There are also specially constructed outdoor facilities such as:
- Athletic tracks
- Golf courses
- Playing pitches
- Sports stadium.
Natural resources such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, beaches, hills, mountains and caves can also provide suitable terrain for this particular range of physical activities.
Swimming Pools
Most recreational swimming pools are indoors so that they can be used throughout the whole year, these are almost all in the Public sector. Numbers recorded in 1998 showed that there were 1400 indoors pools and 3500 pools belonging to schools. These pools were conventionally 25x10 meters2, recently pools are being developed that are away from the conventional norm. they are being developed with chutes, slides, wave machines and floating islands these are being developed for people to have fun rather than primarily become fitter.
Locally in the area of Thanet there are 3 swimming pools that are accessible by the public in sports centres:
- Hartsdown Leisure Centre
- Ramsgate Leisure Centre
- Banantynes Leisure Centre
These centres provide the use of their swimming pools, Hartsdown and Ramsgate Leisure Centre are public centres and Banantynes is a Private Leisure Centre, the difference is that the service offered to customers is supposedly better at Banantynes as the charge is higher. But looking at the services offered on paper the service seems level as Banantynes do not offer any lifeguards and their pools are only 4ft deep.
Sports Centres
Sports centres are part of the fashion in this day, almost everyone has been to one and out of those many people have memberships to one. In 1960 there was only one purpose built public facility; whereas not we have over 2500. Similar to swimming pools most of these are dominated by the public sector, such as local authorities and schools.
These generally consist of a sports hall, changing facilities and a reception. Some of these facilities have extra features such as:
- Sqaush Courts
- Weights Rooms
- Climbing Walls
- Social areas:
- Bar
- Café
- Function Room
- Seated reception
These facilities are primarily for the use of the public but an ulterior motive could be secondary spending, despite some charges being negligible it creates revenue nonetheless.
The local Sports and Leisure Centre is Hartsdown Leisure Centre, here is a list of the products and services they provide
- Sports activities
- Classes for beginners: Swimming classes
- Function: Hall can be hired for parties
- Food and Drink: they have a café that sells fast food
- Special Rates for members: they sell memberships
- Hiring and selling equipment: they hire rackets and sell swimming goggles
These items should be common in most Sports centres run by local authorities.
Health and Fitness Centres
The growing awareness of health benefits of an active lifestyle has created a demand to some extent for fitness products and services. Health and Fitness centres are mainly in the Private sector. So in my area the likely hood that Banantynes would have a health and fitness trainer is high. The fact is that some public sector fitness centres also have these machines and trainers available for an extra fee.
A health and fitness centre would conventionally contain the following items:
- Saunas
- Jacuzzis
- Steam rooms
- Masseurs
- Aromatherapy
- Beauty Therapy
- Swimming pool
There are over 2200 private health and fitness clubs in the UK. In 1999 it was estimated that £1,254,000,000 was generated in revenue for the UK’s Private sector of Health and Fitness; this can be divided into £116,000,000 for joining fees, £250,000,000 other revenue, £888,000,000 in membership or admission fees. This is a considerable amount of money and the financial impact for the UK would be when the tax is to be paid on the final amount.
Here is a chart that shows the distribution of the incoming cash flow:
this chart shows me that the bulk of the revenue generated is from membership fees, this accounts for 71% of the revenue and joining fees account for 9 %. This means that 80% of the income is from customers that are using the facilities for fitness or training purposes.
Fitness first and Whitbread are the largest operators in the UK dedicated to Health and Fitness clubs, and Granada and Hilton groups are the largest Hotel based Health and Fitness providers in the UK. In terms of members Whitbread has broken the barrier and managed to achieve a massive figure of 205,676 members as part of its national chain of sports facilities. This has been achieved by it buying many facilities, with the current members. It is beating its current competitor by 75,676 members this company is called Cannons group. Below I will show a chart of the leading operators in the UK for Health and Fitness:
Local Clubs and Associations
There are an estimated 150,000 voluntary sports clubs in the UK affiliated to around 400 national governing bodies of sports. A few of these governing bodies of sports are as follows:
- Kent Squash and Racketball Association
- Kent County Lawn Tennis Association
- Edenbridge Sports Association
- Medway Badminton Association
These facilities are sometimes formed by the local community, the aim of this organisation will be to serve the community and so they will be a non profit venture. When a company is non-profit it is in the voluntary sector. These type of organisations will have in them provisions useful for the customers, general provisions that are found can be listed as:
- Bar
- Function Room
- Meeting Room
As I have stated these will vary from place to place. So in areas where there is little need of a bar this may be taken away and in places where there is a demand for a function room there may be multiple.
Playing Pitches
As stated the sports industry is a massive industry. Outdoor sports such as Hockey, Ruby, Cricket and Football require pitches. According to the English Sports Council there are 70,000 pitches in England, this figure is an estimate as a real figure is difficult to obtain as all pitches are not registered yet. There are 300 artificial grass pitches in England.
Sports Spectating
Sports such as Football are highly viewed, this means that spectator numbers in a match will be high. This becomes an asset to the economy if this is cashed in – and a spectator fee is charged. Charging a spectator fee will create revenue when the pitch is being used for a sports match, but, in the rest of the time the pitch can be used in other activities that can create revenue.
Recently this fact has been identified and re-development has resulted. Sports stadia are now often multi-purpose leisure facilities. This allows for the same area to be used frequently for the benefit of the investors and shareholders.
Sports Retail
This section of the industry is extremely profitable for the sole-trader. As there is a demand for items that sports celebrities wear, this is a great marketing tool for companies such as; Nike, Addidas, Puma, rebok and other branded clothings. Due to this type of advertising they have become household names and are desirable to the public.
Chains of sports retailers, such as JJB and Sports Division, have ensured that the High Street is a common place for sporting goods. In 1999 it was recorded that between the two companies JJB and Sports Division they had 449 stores nationwide competing with the sole-traders in all the local towns.
Below I will show a chart of the sales figures:
This chart shows that the sports this section of the industry is still on the rise, so there is still potential for retailers to open on the local High streets.
All of these sporting goods manufacturers and Retailers are in the Private sector as their main incentive is to make a profit.
3. Heritage
Heritage attractions range from old historic sites such as Skara Brae and Stonehenge, to the latest technological attractions such as the Earth Gallery Experience at the National History Museum in London. The classification given to a visitor attraction formally by the English tourism Board is:
“A permanently established excursion destination, a primary purpose of which is to allow public access for entertainment, interest or education, rather than being a primary retail outlet or venue for sporting, theatrical or film performances. It must be open to the public, without prior booking, for published periods each year, and should be capable of attracting day visitors or tourists as well as local residents”
This definition encompasses a much broader range of visitor attraction than just heritage sites, but this was the best example regardless. Visitor attractions can be classified in a variety of different ways such as those that charge an admission fee or not, or those that are natural or not.
The following class as a place of importance due to their heritage:
- Windsor Castle
- Margate
- Historic Parks and Gardens
- Iron Bridge
In 1998 UK heritage attractions attracted over 50 million visitors to various attractions, this shows that this is a key component to the leisure and recreation industry. And so cannot be overlooked. Below I will show the top 10 historic houses and monuments in 1999
When a building or site is classed as being of importance it is then listed, there are approximately 450,000 listed historic buildings in the UK, some of them are as follows;
- Blenheim Palace
- Dover Castle
- Westminster Abbey
- Hadrian’s Wall
Some historic buildings are owned and run by religious groups such as Westminster Abbey and York Minster. Both of these site attract 2 million visitors each year. Approximately a third of historic buildings that are open to the public belong to the private or voluntary sector.
The information I will be providing will be from the English Heritage Council.
This council secures the conservation of England’s historic site, monuments, building and other sites of value to national heritage, such as the Historic Dock Yards Chatham.
The promotion of these sites to the public to enjoy and use, is not the only aim to which this organisation adhere to but they try to raise an understanding and awareness of the heritage.
The main source of finance of this organisation is DCMS, other methods of financing include marketing activities, admission fees, Membership fees and interest. In 1998-1999 the money raised from other sources of income was £28.3 million pounds. This is how this figure was reached
4. Catering
Hospitality and Catering is an industry in its own right, this is very closely linked to the leisure and recreation industry. Many businesses include catering as a big part of their business and some include it as a hospitality venture to ensure a pleasant visit to their company.
This industry applies to the following;
- Sports Centres
- Cinemas
- Theme Parks
- Swimming Pools
- Sports Stadia
- Social Clubs
In 1998 there was seen to be 44,500 restaurants, takeaways and cafés in the UK, this gave a combined turnover of £13.5 billion. The restaurant and takeaway market has grown since 1993:
This clearly shows that overall consumer spending has increased in the catering industry, also I can clearly see that despite other facilities being open the traditional Pub meal is still the highest earner.
Here I will show the top 10 of UK Restaurant chains in 1998:
In 1999 there were 1169 restaurants in the UK that were part of the top 10 Restaurant chains. Between them they were providing a wide range of food and beverages. They had service options and different food orientations, so some provided fast food and other have restaurants, some have buffet style restaurants and others have full waiter service.
5. Country side recreation
The term countryside and recreation cover an extremely large range of activities that are; land based, water based and air based. Many activities in the country side are either sports or require an amount of physical effort to be applied. There are also area in the countryside that are not physically challenging, such as parks and gardens.
In the countryside there all three sectors of business are running. They are all providing in some way a certain amount of leisure or entertainment or recreational activity or product.
The best known areas of the countryside are the National Parks, which were initially created by the act of parliament in 1949. they were referred to as ‘areas of great and natural beauty giving opportunity for open air recreation, established so that natural beauty can be preserved and enhanced, so that enjoyment of the scenery by the public can be promoted’.
The country side commission estimates that approximately 10 million people visit national parks every year. The act of parliament in 1949 gave way for the natural parks to be preserved and enhanced. This meant that park now became places of outstanding beauty, this gave way to open air recreational activities for the enjoyment of the public.
There are many other designated areas of the countryside that provide recreational opportunities, these include areas of outstanding beauty and heritage coasts such as the following:
- Kent Downs
- Norfolk Coast
- Cleveland Way
- Giants Causeway
- Viking Trails
- Stonehenge
All of these are listed destinations so they cannot be changed.
Since the creation of many local and city councils around a 100 years ago, many parks and public gardens have been created that belong to the council for the use of the common public, many areas have urban parks, gardens, allotments in addition to recent developments of children play areas and cycle ways.
Some of the best known urban parks include Hyde Park, Regents Park and St James Park, London contains two of the most visited parks in the UK they are Kew Gardens and Hampton Court.
Urban Parks and Gardens
Provision of land for common recreational use dates back to the middle ages. The loss of the commons due to their enclosure by Landlords meant that people were being deprived of civil amenities in the 19th century, led to a parliament making a specific provision for open spaces and playgrounds. This however did not come into force until 1926. now all local authorities have a parks and civil amenities department.
Outdoor Pursuits
There are over a thousand outdoor pursuit, arena’s and centres in the UK, they specialise in providing outdoor adventure holidays. For example Skern Lodge. These centres provide the consumers with an action filled holiday which includes the following:
- Canoeing
- Horse riding
- Sailing
- Rafting
- Abseiling
These are assault courses, this is a prime example of changing fashions as people’s thrill factor has been reached so they are looking for thrills obtained in physical activities.
6. Home Based Leisure
The term home-based leisure covers the wide range of activities that a person or people can do inside the home that provides them with leisure. According to the research I have already done I can clearly state that due to technological advancements in home leisure spending has increased, but also the pleasure from it has increased as there is a wider choice of activities. Such as:
- Videos
- Pets
- Magazines
- Books
- Toys and Games
- DIY
- PCs
- Photography
- CDs, Records and Tapes
- Gardening
- Audio Equipment
- TV
The advancements in television, video and DVD have clearly improved the viewing pleasure. The digital TV was first launched in the UK in 1998 and its continued advancements in internet connections means that some day the time we are spending on downloading will soon be a few second whereas it is a few minutes now.
The demand for DIY and Gardening will remain constant, but some other activities such as reading the local or national paper as it comes through the door will soon be at a decline as it is widely available on the internet, usually at a cheaper rate. This is beneficial to both the customer and the Newspaper industry, however, shopkeepers may feel the pinch unless they soon find some alternate.
I will now show a few facts about the Home Based Leisure Industry
- 31.9m adults read books, spending over £1.9 billion
- 42.1 m adults listen to radio, and 39 m listen to CDs and tapes
- 84% of households own CD players
- 32% of households have a PC and 36% of households have video games
- 203 m CDs and 95 m singles are sold in the UK
- 20.9 m adults do DIY meaning 69% of them
- Consumers Spend £7.8 Billion on DIY
- 88% of households own a camera, 23% own a camcorder
- 96,000 new books are published annually
- 30.7 m adults are involved in gardening, totalling £3.1 billion
- consumer spending on toys and games of £2.1 billions
- 39 m adults read newspapers, spending over £2.5 billion
- Average daily newspaper circulation of 13.5 m
- 31.8 million adults read magazines, spending £1.5 billion
-
Households with TVs: 98% colour TVs, 59% 2nd colour TV, 42% with Sky or Cable
- Consumer spending on TVs totals £7.2 billion
- There are over 400 channels available on Sky TV at present that was predicted for broad cast by 2013
- 92% of households with Videos spend over £2.9 billion on equipment, rentals and video cassettes
This industry in dominated by the Private sector.
Range of Employment opportunities in Leisure and Recreation
As previously stated the industry of Leisure and Recreation has a great need for constant workforce, above I have stated that there are 50,000 new jobs created and annually people leave due to numerous reasons, one being retirement. Due to this reason a company need to keep in mind the fact that they will need to be able to employ people at any time.
To show my understanding of this section I will structure my work in the following way:
- Range of Employment
- Nature of Employment
- Skills Required
After this I will explain where a person will have to look to find a job. To best explain this section I have chosen the Restaurant Trade and in it a Chef as my example.
Range of Employment Opportunities in Leisure and Recreation
There are many types of businesses in this industry each type of business requires a different type of person, different type of character and also a different qualification. So this industry offers employment opportunities for all people. Employment of people with low qualification may result in a lower income and restricted promotion and people with high levels of academic qualification can get higher levels of income with greater opportunities open to them.
Here is a list of the types of employment offered by each sector of this industry and a suitable example locally:
Nature of Employment
There are 3 types of employment used in the leisure and recreation industry these are:
- Fixed employment
- Contract employment
- Un-fixed employment
Fixed employment is where someone is there indefinitely with some stability. Contract employment is where a person is contracted to do a certain job or time limit and then the contract is over. Un-fixed employment is where a person is working on a momentary basis and there is no stability.
There are also 3 types of payment schemes that run along side the types of employment:
- Wage
Wage is where a person is working hourly and gets paid according to the hours they work.
- Salaried
Salaried is where a person is paid a set salary for the work they do, this can mean that one week they work less hours and another they work more than required.
- Voluntary
Voluntary work is usually unpaid and without a formal or verbal contract.
As in any industry employees are required, in the leisure and recreation industry all types of work is available for all types of people. Employment opportunities range from jobs for school leavers to degree holders.
The vast range of jobs reflect the breadth and diversity of the key industry components.
Some jobs are common over all industries and sectors of this industry. Some jobs are extremely specific to the section of this industry, here are a few examples of how this will work:
My Chosen Job description
The sector I have chosen is Fast Food, I will now describe the type of employment that is offered by a fast food retailer.
The retailer I have chosen is TFS Indian food take-away and deliveries, this retailer is situated in Margate, off the main road in Cliftonville. They sell mainly Indian food along with any special orders.
The type of job opportunities they have at this take-away are:
As this is a small shop they have only the space and budget for 3 people to work at this shop.
Task 6
A job that I believe suits my personal ability and aspirations has to be a job where I am certain about what to do at any time, where all of my avenues are clear and I should be at the top as soon as possible. I believe that if I were to become a restaurant chef this would match my skills as I like to experiment with food.
To become a chef a person must do a Health and Safety course. This course ensures that a person cooking food know the position they stand in when making food, the implications of their actions if they were to do something wrong. This course is usually provided by the local council or authority, the training is provided before the test.
This job of a chef in a restaurant would suit my personal circumstance as I attend college in the day time and the restaurant trade is an evening affair. This means that I can attend college in the day and easily do work in the evenings. The problem will arise if I have children as working in the day time means that they can go to school but working in the evenings mean that I would need a minder or baby sitter.
Being a chef requires good memory skills and a creative hand, with confidence. Being a chef means that I will have a defined job where I will not have to deal with the general public. Restaurant chefs are usually not in a hurry to make food as they ensure it is properly cooked and prepared, I am extremely particular where my food is concerned.
Task 7
Application Form
Position for which you are applying ?
Chef
Where did you hear about this Vacancy ?
Newspaper
PERSONAL DETAILS
Surname Ijaz Mr Telephone 01843231716
First Name Faraz DOB 24 / 09 / 1984
Address 126 Northdown Rd Age 18
Margate Nationality British/Pakistani
Kent Marital Status Single
CT9 2RB
FULL AND PART-TIME EDUCATION (Please continue on a separate sheet if necessary.)
School, College, University From To Qualifications Obtained
Abbey School, Faversham 2000 2002 GCSE B,C GNVQ C,C
PRESENT AND PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT (please continue on a separate sheet if necessary)
Name and address of employer From To Job Titles and Responsibilities
Star Cars, Turner St, Ramsgate 03/03 -- Taxi Controller
Self Employed, Birchington 03/03 12/03 Deliveries
Little Chef, A299 Coastbound 09/02 12/02 Waitering and making meals
Hotel Bel-Air, Athelstan Rd 08/01 08/02 Handy man
Curriculum Vitae to match job description
Name
Address Margate, Kent, CT9 2RB
Date of Birth 24th of September 1984
The Abbey Secondary School 2000-2002
GCSE -Maths b
GCSE -English c,d
GNVQ -Business PASS
Employment Experience
2003-Present
Star Cars Taxi’s, Part-time taxi controller, Saturdays and Sundays with some holidays. My duties include answering telephones and taking bookings, talking to the drivers, overseeing the computer sending jobs to drivers to ensure the efficiency.
2002-2002
Little Chef, Part-time waiter, Saturday and Sunday. My duties included serving people with meals and clearing up afterwards, I also assisted the chef in preparing the meals.
2001-2002
Hotel Bel- Air, Part-time handy man, most days. My duties included repairing most type of leaks assisting professionals and managing the hotel on a momentary basis.
Interests
Driving many types of vehicles, achieving as many licences as possible is one of my aims. I enjoy watching crime investigation documentaries and reading about them, I enjoy keeping fit and going to the gym occasionally. I enjoy learning martial arts and self defence.
Other Awards and Qualifications
Clean driving license, Fire Safety certificate.
Referees
Mr A Zahid
40 Sweyn Rd
Margate Kent
CT9 2BD
The job I have selected is Restaurant Manager, I have chosen this job because I know many people who work in restaurants. Restaurant managers have a wide role to play in the leisure and recreation industry as fast food sales are rapidly growing. This industry has made a combined turnover of £13.5 billion in 1998 alone, with a total of around 44,500 restaurants, cafés and take-aways in the UK.
The requirements of being a restaurant manager are as follows:
Health and Safety Certificate
First Aid Certificate
Hygiene and Food Safety Certificate
Fire safety Certificate
The qualifications are not all a manager requires in this field, they need to be able to deal with situations that arise in their site and be able to act in a responsible and correct manner following the law in all aspects of the running of the restaurant.
This job will best suit my abilities and skills because I am able to conduct myself in situations where other people may not be able to.
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