Leisure, recreation and tourism: a model of leisure activity

Abstract

Problems of leisure activities are discussed in connection with, a time‑distance model. The study confines itself to leisure activities that take place away from home, thus avoiding a general discussion of the terms leisure and free‑time. Various geographic approaches are possible to the study of leisure activities: for example human geography stresses their economic or social implications, while in the context of physical geography questions of resource allocations (evaluation, capacity) are important.

A fundamental relationship in the geography of leisure is that of time available and distance from home covered. Existing empirical studies allow recognizing certain general trends which have been assembled in a model. This distinguishes three categories of leisure activities, termed short‑, medium‑ and long‑range leisure activities respectively, and from these three zones the terms for the participants: recreationist, excursionist and tourist are derived. An important factor in this connec­tion is mobility, since people travel relatively far away from home even for such a short time as half a day.

Each of the three leisure activity categories (or zones) is char­acterized by its particular patterns, impacts and requests. Pattern is defined as the overall visible appearance (structure) of leisure activities, while impact is their visible and invisible influence on the destination area. Request is understood to be the public's wishes for certain activities. This latter concept is however fairly complex as the individual's wishes change and can also be manipulated. The study closes with an attempt at a definition of the term tourism. From the discussion of the leisure activity model it becomes obvious that this term should only be used with reference to the long‑range leisure activity zone.