Leisure visits to the countryside are a popular pursuit for many people. Our surveys help us to understand patterns of use and trends and are widely used in policy development, research and by those planning and providing leisure facilities.
Recreation

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England Leisure Visits Surveys

Walkers on a day visit to the countryside
Leisure visits to the countryside are a popular pursuit for many people. Our surveys help us to understand patterns of use and trends and are widely used in policy development, research and by those planning and providing leisure facilities.

England Leisure Visits Survey 2005

The England Leisure Visits Survey for 2005 has been published. It reveals that over a third of adults surveyed hadn’t made a leisure trip in the last week, with 40% saying that they were too busy working or studying to go out. Poor health was cited as the second most common reason (22%).

You can download the report and the supporting data here:

Report summary

There were an estimated 3.6 billion leisure trips in England in 2005, down from 5.4 billion in 2002/03, although some of this reduction may have been caused by changes in survey methodology. Trip numbers were growing modestly in the early 1990s, but since 1998 there appears to be an underlying downward trend for all visits, including trips to the countryside.

Despite fewer visits overall, the value of trips is growing with people spending more money per outing. The average spend per trip is £25.09 with higher levels of spend in towns and cities and at seaside resorts.  The estimated total value was £90 billion with £9.4 billion of this in the countryside, where the average spend per trip was £13.38.

Although fewer people are going out, overall the ones who do are more likely to be walking than leisure shopping! 18% said this was the main reason for their trip compared to 12% in 2002/03.

The England Leisure Visits Survey 2005 began in January 2005 and ran for a calendar year.

England Leisure Visits - Summary Report (468kb pdf)

2005 Survey design and methodology

A telephone survey was conducted, made up of a core sample of 23,500 people randomly distributed across England, plus a similar size boost sample to cover the catchments for National Parks and open access land which is used to understand the characteristics of visitors to those areas.  

Respondents were asked to recall details of all leisure visits made in England in the last seven days and the results were compiled in respondent-based and visit-based tables.