Unit 1

Investigating Leisure and Tourism

Section 1

The Leisure Industry

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About this unit

This unit is worth 33% of your final GCSE. You will sit an
exam.

This unit includes 3 sections:

1. The leisure industry

2. The travel and tourism industry
3. Links between leisure and tourism

The idea of this unit is for you to:

• Understand the important role that leisure and tourism

plays in today’s society.
• Learn about the different facilities and organisations
that make up the leisure and tourism industries.
• Consider how leisure and tourism industries are linked
and how they work together to offer customers a good
service.
• Investigate the leisure industries in the local area.
• Learn about tourism destinations in the UK, where they
are, what they offer visitors and the main transport
routes to them.
• Understand how the industry provides products and
services for people in the UK

This guide provides you with the basic information that you
need. You will need to complete all classwork activities to
ensure that you understand the key points in this guide.

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 Section 1 The Leisure Industry
Part A

What is Leisure?

Leisure time is that time when you can choose to do what you want to do.

Leisure activities are the range of activities that individuals do in their

free time.

The leisure industry provides:

Facilities – places where people carry out leisure activities e.g. theme
park, swimming pool

Products – what you can buy at facilities e.g. food and drink, souvenirs

Services –provided by the facility e.g. information given by a

receptionist, coaching, supervision, bars.

The leisure industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the UK

and people are always looking for new ways to spend their leisure time.

There are a number of reasons for the growth of the leisure industry.

These are largely connected with the larger amount of leisure time that
people have and improvements in technology.

Why do people spend more time in leisure activities?

• Early retirement and increased life expectancy

• The average person works only 37 hours per week, compared to 45
hours per week in the past.
• People get more paid holidays (28 days compared to only 14 days in
1938)
• New technology (e.g dishwashers and microwaves) means people
spend less time on housework.
• An increase in the amount of money people have got to spend
(disposable income)

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How has technology encouraged the growth of the leisure
industry?

• 1900s improvements in transport make it easier to get to different

leisure facilities.
• 1952 jet airlines make travel even easier
• 1980s leisure technology in the home (video, computer games etc)
• 1990s Eurotunnel makes it easier to travel to Europe.

As a result of all of these changes, the leisure industry has grown

massively.
Lots of different facilities have opened to meet the needs of people
wanting to take part in leisure activities

A lot of these facilities are now aimed at families who want to spend
their leisure time together

e.g. family tickets at theme parks, pubs with family rooms.

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Part B

What are the key components of the leisure industry?

The leisure industry is massive and needs to be divided into different

parts (components) to help our understanding.

There are 7 different components of the leisure industry;

1. Sports and Physical Recreation e.g. football, badminton.

2. Arts and Entertainment e.g clubs, cinema, theatre

3. Countryside recreation e.g. climbing, hiking.

4. Home-based leisure e.g. DIY, TV, videos, computer games.

5. Children’s play activities e.g. play parks, adventure playgrounds.

6. Visitor attractions e.g. Alton Towers, Buckingham Palace

7. Catering e.g. fast-food outlets, pubs, cafes.

Case Studies
For each of the key components of the leisure industry, you
will need to know about a real life example (case study). In
lessons, you will study some examples at local and national
scales.

On the next few pages are some case studies that you can also
use.

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Sports and Physical Recreation

• This component is becoming more important as people aim to

become fitter e.g. the London Marathon attracts 33 000 runners
and thousands of spectators.
• In 2000, people in the UK spent £15 billion on sport and physical
recreation
• It is big business and there are a number of opportunities for
money to be made e.g. football magazines, souvenirs, coach trips to
venues, food, venues such as racecourses.
• London wants to host the Olympic Games in 2012 because the
government knows it is a good way of making money.
• Sport is also being used to tackle social problems such as racism
e.g the ‘Kick Racism out of Football’ campaign.

Arts and Entertainment

• This component covers a wide range of leisure activities e.g. art

galleries, theatres, bingo, pubs, nightclubs, museums etc
• Museums have tried to change their image and try to show
information in a fun and exciting way. The aim is to try to attract
more families and children

JORVIK MUSEUM IN YORK

• Built on the site of the ancient Viking City of York
• It takes people back to what life was like at the time of the
Vikings. Houses and streets have been recreated and technology
allows the smells and noises of the city to be experienced.
• This makes it more fun than just looking at the remains. This helps
the museum become more popular and make more money.

NIGHTCLUBS
• People go to nightclubs to have a good time.
• There might be violence caused by drunk people, problems with
drugs. There might also be problems with noise. This is often the
reason why nightclubs have to be away from where people live.
• It is the responsibility of the nightclub owners to prevent these
problems. That is why they search people and have security
guards.
• However, the problems can also affect the town centre and the
police then have to deal with these problems.

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Countryside recreation

• People go the countryside to escape the noise of the city. They

want to enjoy the peace and quiet of open spaces, mountains, rivers
and lakes. They also enjoy the scenery.

• The foot and mouth disease in 2001 (affecting sheep and cattle)
stopped people visiting the countryside. This cost the UK £1.6
billion. This shows the important of this leisure activity.

• There are a number of ways in which the countryside is protected

so that people can enjoy it e.g. National trails that give long-
distance footpaths for ramblers, Heritage coasts and Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty.

NATIONAL PARKS
These were first set up in 1951. Locate them on a map.

They cover an area of 15 000 sq. km in England and Wales (very large!).
They employ 350 000 people. Visitors spend £11 billion in National Park
areas every year.

They have 2 aims:

1. Protect the countryside and prevent damage (conserve and enhance)
2. Allow visitors to enjoy visiting the National Park.

National Parks provide a number of different services:

1. Information centres and leaflets, books that tell you all about the
Park and places to visit.
2. Ranger or warden who helps to conserve the park.
3. Facilities that make it easier for people to visit e.g. footpaths.
4. Car parks and picnic sites
5. Help voluntary conservation and wildlife groups.

Leisure activity can cause problems in National Parks:

create litter
increase pollution
disturb wildlife
reduce habitats
change landscapes

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Home-based leisure
People spend £40 billion every year on home-based leisure. You should be
aware of the different types of home-based leisure and know what types
you take part in.

Children’s play activities

These are very important as it helps children to develop skills as well as

enjoy themselves.

PLAY AREAS
These are built and looked after by local authorities (council). They can
be found in parks or near houses so that the children can be supervised.

When play areas are built, the local authority needs to think about:
• Safety
• Supervision
• Making size, shape and colour of equipment interesting to children

Visitor attractions
This is a place that attracts tourists and offers enjoyment, amusement,
entertainment and education.

There are six different types of visitor attraction:

1. Historic buildings
2. Museums and art galleries
3. Wildlife attractions
4. Gardens
5. Steam railways
6. Leisure parks

CASE STUDY OF ALTON TOWERS

Different services and products attract people to Alton Towers:
• Rides such as Nemesis, Air and Oblivion
• 200 acres of beautiful gardens
• A hotel that has 175 rooms that include themed rooms such as a
chocolate room, Coca Cola Fizzy suite
• Historic building of Alton Towers
• Restaurants and snack bars

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CASESTUDY OF MEADOWHALL – LEISURE SHOPPING

• This is 3 miles NE of Sheffield in South Yorkshire

• About 8 million people live within an hour’s drive of the site.
• It is next to the M1 motorway for easy access.
• It is an attractive site because it is next to the River Don and has
been landscaped to include trees, walkways, seating and play areas

This site was chosen because it provides an excellent shopping

environment. This includes:
• Location and catchment (lots of people live nearby)
• Access and car parking (M1 motorway and 12 600 car parking
spaces)
• Size, design and layout
• Leisure/catering
• Customer service
• Clean, safe and secure environment.

Catering

Eating out is one of the most popular leisure activities in the UK.
There are a wide range of places where you can eat out and you can also
order take-away meals.

The biggest growth has been in pub food because it is high quality,
cheaper than restaurants and pubs often have family rooms.

Leisure facilities often provide catering e.g

• Cinemas – popcorn, hot dogs, drinks

• Leisure centres – vending machines and cafe
• Theatres – bars and restaurants
• Theme parks – fast food, restaurants, cafes and bars.

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Part C

Components of the Leisure Industry are often linked

Examples of this are:

• A leisure centre allows people to take part in sport and physical
recreation and, at the same time, it may have a bar and restaurant
that come under the catering component.
• Mountaineering can be classed as both a sport and countryside
activity.

Part D

Meeting People’s Leisure Needs – Leisure Facilities

Facilities means:

equipment
buildings and structures
features of the natural environment

Taking part in leisure, sport and recreation activities are possible only if
access to the necessary facilities is available.

Over the past 30 years there has been a change in the facilities available
e.g. multi-screen cinema complexes, floodlit playing areas, leisure pools
with slides and flumes.

1. Leisure Centres

• Originally built in town centres but suffered from a lack of space.

• 1970s – local authorities built them with surrounding track and
field areas for other sports such as football and tennis.

EXAMPLE – The Dome at Doncaster

• one of Europe’s largest indoor centres
• offers more than 50 activities e.g. squash, ice-skating, martial arts
• it has other facilities such as bar, café, conference room

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Some leisure centres are attached to schools so that they get more use.
The school use it during the day and the public use it after 4pm and at
weekends. This is called ‘dual use’.

When planning a leisure centre (its Programme mix) you need to think
about different groups of people. These include:

• unemployed
• disabled
• OAPs
• Clubs
• Young teenagers
• Toddlers

A leisure centre must provide the widest possible range of facilities for
the community and offer value for money.

Other facilities that you will need to know about are:

Health clubs, libraries, cinemas and theatres, pubs and restaurants,

community centres, museums and art galleries.

For each of these facilities, think about how they attract customers and
meet people’s leisure needs. You will also need to know about local
examples of these facilities.

2. SPORTS VENUES

Sports venues range from the local playing fields to massive stadia such
as Old Trafford and The Boleyn Ground (Upton Park)

EXAMPLE OF FOOTBALL GROUNDS

• Football grounds have had to change to stop the problems caused by

violent hooligans in the 1970s and 1980s.
• It was necessary to make life safer for spectators, especially after
the Hillsborough (Sheffield) disaster in 1989, when over 90 Liverpool
fans were killed by overcrowding in an area of the stadium.

Improvements included:

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• Making stadia all-seater
• Big video screens for entertainment before the match
• Family areas to encourage women and children to attend
• Creches
• CCTV to watch for problems in the crowd
• More stewards and police
• Better catering facilities
• Hospitality/executive boxes.

National Sports Venues

Sport England has 5 centres of excellence providing high quality facilities

for athletes to train and compete.

These are:

• Crystal Palace, London – athletics, swimming and basketball.

• Lilleshall, Shropshire – cricket, football, gymnastics
• Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham – rowing, sailing, canoeing
• Bisham Abbey, Buckinghamshire – squash, football, tennis
• Plas y Brenin, National Mountain Centre Snowdonia –
mountaineering, rock climbing, canoeing and orienteering.

Case Study of National Water Sports Centre at Holme Pierrepont

Located near Nottingham on the River Trent.
Facilities include:
• 2000m regatta lake
• canoe slalom course
• water-ski lake
• ski tows
• Multi-purpose sports hall
• Fitness training facilities
• Sports medicine clinic
• Lecture hall
• Function rooms.

The development of the centre has been environmentally friendly. It has

been carefully landscaped so as to manage natural wildlife and plants. It
has attempted to reduce waste and it recycles where possible.

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Other Important Sports Venues

• Hampden Park, Glasgow and other main football stadia e.g. Old
Trafford, Anfield, Upton Park.
• Rugby stadia – Murrayfield (Edingburgh), Twickenham (London),
Lansdowne Road (Dublin) and Millennium Stadium (Cardiff).
• Cricket – Lord’s, London
• Tennis – All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon

3. THEME PARKS

These were made popular by Walt Disney in the USA in 1955. Since then
theme parks have become more popular in the UK with famous examples
such Alton Towers and Thorpe Park.

CASE STUDY OF LEGOLAND, WINDSOR

• Located west of London and accessed by train from Waterloo station

(30 minutes journey) or from the M25, M3 and M4.
• Set in 150 acres of parkland with over 50 rides and attractions.
• Divided into themed areas including Miniland
• New attractions include new models of the London Eye and Buckingham
Palace

Other facilities that help to meet people’s needs include:

• Cash dispensers
• Wheelchair hire
• Kennels
• Baby-care centre
• First aid centre

4. FACILITIES PROVIDING FOR HOMEBASED LEISURE

Leisure activities that take place in the home are sometimes provided by
facilities outside the home

e.g. video rental stores, bookshops and libraries, shops selling computer
games.

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PART E
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Leisure facilities are trying to attract more and more people by providing
a range of products and services. The more products and services a
facility provides, the more people will be attracted to it.

An example of products and services in a leisure centre

• Sports activities including swimming, badminton, squash, keep-fit,
trampolining. People take part in these to get fit, enjoy themselves,
socialise, feel part of a group, to win.

• Lessons and classes for different age groups so that people can take
part at their own age group and not feel under pressure.

• Functions such as wedding receptions, New Year’s eve dances. These

are often held in multi-purpose sports halls.

• Food and drink can be bought from vending machines or cafes in the
leisure centre.

• Special rates for members/groups. These help to attract as many

people as possible e.g. cheaper rates for off-peak times, cheaper for
OAPs and senior citizens, family tickets, discounts if you become a
member.
• Purchase and hire of equipment such as squash and badminton
racquets. Some centres may even have their own sports shops. This
brings in more business and shows that the centre is trying to cover
the whole range of products and services to satisfy its customers.

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PART F
MAIN FACTORS THAT DECIDE HOW PEOPLE SPEND
THEIR LEISURE TIME

1. Age Group
• Young people aged 18-30 usually like to go to pubs and clubs.
• Young people may be attracted to adventure holidays or Club 18-30
style holidays
• People over 55 often prefer to go out in groups e.g. Saga Holidays
provides for older age groups.

2. Culture
• This means our values and beliefs, our way of life
• Our culture includes watching television for an average 26 hours a
week
• There has been a fitness boom in the UK over the past 20 years. This
affects how we spend our leisure time.
• Different ethnic groups have different traditions and this may affect
how they spend their leisure time e.g strict Muslim women are not
allowed to show their body in public and this affects how they spend
their leisure time
• Levels of divorce in the UK are very high and this may affect how
much money people have to spend on leisure activities

3. Special Needs
These groups of people include:
• People with disabilities (accessibility to facilities)
• Parents with young children (accessibility to facilities, time)
• People who are unemployed (having enough money)
• Ethnic minority groups (language and cultural differences)

People with special needs can still enjoy their leisure time providing
facilities consider their needs.

For example, disabled people may need

• Special car parking spaces close to the main entrance
• Wide corridors and doors
• Ramps and lifts

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4. Type of Household

A family of four would have different leisure activities to a single person.

A working couple with no children are likely to have more leisure time
than a couple with 2 children under the age of five.

Time, money, energy and the number of people involved need to be

considered.

5. Gender
Men and women have different needs and interests when it comes to how
they enjoy their leisure time

6. Social Group
This is affected by marital status, education, jobs and income.

People who have similar jobs and similar income have similar leisure
interests.

7. Availability of Local Facilities

Different areas have better facilities than others. It may be affected
by the number of people in the area, age group, quality of the area,
amount of money spent by the local authority on leisure facilities.

8. Availability of Transport
Many households have 1 or 2 cars. This allows people to travel to the
leisure facilities of their choice, particularly for countryside recreation.

People without cars have to rely on buses or trains. This adds extra cost
and time and could limit leisure activities. Sometimes public transport is
not very reliable and may not run very often.

9. People’s Interests
The type of interest you have depends on the time available and the
money you may have to spend on it. This may be affected by the type of
job you have.

10.Fashion
Your leisure interests may be affected by what is popular at the time e.g.
skateboarding. There is also a trend for people to take up a healthy
lifestyle by taking up more exercise.

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11.Influence of Family and friends
Sporting interests tend to be passed on from parents to children.
Friends also influence which leisure activities we choose to do e.g. a group
of friends may decide to go to the cinema every Saturday afternoon.

12.Amount of disposable income

This is the money left over after all bills, rent and taxes have been paid.
This is the amount that you can spend how you choose.
The more disposable income people have, the more they can spend on
holidays abroad, going to restaurants etc.

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PART G
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LEISURE
INDUSTRY

You will need to study be aware of the types of jobs available in each
component of the leisure industry, and the skills that these jobs require.
This will be completed by an individual research exercise.

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