Playtime isn’t over: The evolution of leisure

Discusses the future of the UK leisure economy and disputes a potential end of the ‘Play Society’.

Introduction: The State of Play

In the years since the global financial crisis, the UK leisure industry has been a bull in a bear market, rebounding quickly following the crash, and sustaining this growth for close to a decade. The reluctance of consumers to forego leisure just as incomes were being squeezed, and the importance of leisure in consumers’ lives gave rise to a trend which we called The Play Society.

In the last two years, however, Brexit-driven household and national economic uncertainty has badly damaged consumer confidence, with UK consumers showing signs of being in a recessionary state of...

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