Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
England, the Heart of England (the Midlands), Scotland and London. Within these
destination areas, towns, cities, rural areas and coastal areas continue to act as major
attractors. Within the UK, an estimated 6400 visitor attractions exist, and free and paying
attractions received 452 million visits in 2001.
In terms of the overseas holiday habits of UK residents, 2003 saw 41.2 million
holidays taken overseas. The growth of UK outbound tourism has grown from 4.2 million
trips of four nights or more by British residents in 1971 to 13.1 million in 1981 to 20.8
million in 1991 and 32 million in 1998 and 38.7 million in 2001 and 41.2 million in 2003.
Figure 2.6 illustrates the changing tastes of British holidaymakers in overseas holidays
Figure 2.6:
Holidays of four nights or
more by British residents by number
taken per year, 1971-2003
Source: based on Social Tr
ends 33, Office for National
Statistics (2003); http://www.staruk.org/
where many destinations have seen significant fluctuations in arrivals. In 2001, the
countries with the greatest growth in numbers of visits were in the Mediterranean while
the greatest falls were in visits to Germany, Canada and Israel.
What is problematic, as researchers observe, is that many data sources such as
Social
Trends
do not consistently record time series of data. As a result, the data in 2003 was
derived from the 2000 Time Use Survey compared to the General Household Survey that
previously derived more data on participation in home-based leisure.
United States
In the USA, one of the most useful studies of leisure is the National Survey on Recreation
and the Environment, which is an ongoing national, federal survey. Its origins can be
dated to the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission of 1960, which was the
first nationwide outdoor recreation survey, repeated in 1965, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1982-3,
