Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
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the tomorrow technique,
where participants keep a diary on what they do, where and
when they undertake them.
Although time budget studies may still be viewed as experimental in tourism research,
they do offer great potential to gain a detailed insight into tourist use of time and their
activity patterns (Woo 1996).
UK 2000 Time Use Survey
The most substantive study to date is the UK 2000 Time Use Survey (ONS 2002), which
set out to measure how people spent their time. It comprised a representative sample of
households and individuals within households, based on a household questionnaire
survey and diaries, a one week work and education time sheet. It was undertaken in
2000-1 (see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ for more details). What is interesting is the
aggregated results which were used to produce time spent on main and secondary
activities, by category of time use. The profile of time use based on the main activities
over a day are shown in Figure 2.5. This shows that almost 44 per cent of male and just
over 44 per cent of female time is spent on personal care and sleeping each day, followed
by employment as the next major time use. This varied between almost 15 per cent of
male and almost 9 per cent of female time being devoted to employment-related
activities, while family and household care accounts for almost 17 per cent of female
time and less than 10 per cent of male time. In terms of time spent on leisure activities
(e.g. sport, hobbies, games, social life, entertainment and mass media), 20 per cent of
male and 20.33 per cent of female time is devoted to such pursuits, with marginally more
male time given over to mass media (e.g. watching the television). Almost 65 per cent of
male leisure time is devoted to watching television, compared to 55 per cent of female
time. What is also notable is the dominance of passive leisure pursuits.
In terms of the timing of leisure activities for all adults, at 8 a.m., 7 per cent were
engaged in leisure which increased to 14 per cent at 12 noon; this increased to 23 per cent
at 4 p.m. and to 57 per cent at 8 p.m. dropping to 13 per cent at midnight, when 79 per
cent were sleeping. This, however, varied between weekdays (Monday to Thursday),
with 17 per cent of adults in leisure at midnight on a Friday. At weekends, rest and
recuperation were principal leisure activities. Weekend evenings were the most popular
for leisure, activities, with two-thirds of adults engaged in leisure especially socialising
on Saturday evenings at 9 p.m.
