Option E • Section 1
Changing Leisure Patterns
How development, income, time, identity and place reshape participation in tourism and sport.
How human development processes give rise to leisure activities
Growth and changing purpose of leisure
Leisure has shifted from rest and recovery towards consumption, identity, health, social connection and experience.
Industrialisation, shorter working weeks, paid leave, rising incomes, transport and digital technology changed both the quantity and purpose of leisure. Yet access remains uneven because disposable income, time, infrastructure and cultural expectations vary between and within societies.
Enquiry 1 — Who has leisure time?
Compare annual working hours, paid leave and income in two contrasting countries. Explain why rising income does not automatically produce more leisure time, then assess differences by gender, age and class.
Categorising tourism and sport
Tourism can be classified by purpose, cost, duration, distance, destination, scale and organisation.
Enquiry 2 — Build a classification matrix
Classify twelve journeys by cost, duration, destination and purpose. Build a parallel matrix for eight sports using cost, popularity and site. Explain why mass and niche tourism are better seen as a continuum than simple opposites.
Economic growth and participation
China shows how development, urbanisation, a growing middle class and transport investment transform leisure.
Enquiry 3 — Development causal chain
Link income, urbanisation, infrastructure, paid leave, passports, aspirations and government policy to domestic and outbound tourism. Compare China with a lower-income society and identify who remains excluded.
Affluence, gender, lifecycle, personality and place
Individual characteristics interact with social structures and geographical opportunity.
Affluence shapes affordability, but time poverty, caring roles, safety, health, social norms and proximity to facilities also matter. Plog’s continuum models tourist personality from dependable or psychocentric to venturer or allocentric—but remains a simplification.
Enquiry 4 — Participation profiles
Predict participation through five life stages, place three tourist profiles on Plog’s continuum, and evaluate: “Affluence is the most important influence on participation in sport and tourism.”