22nd October 2019
Can 10 years of recreation trends help us to predict the future?
Today Duncan is lucky enough to be in Dartmoor National Park – speaking at the Outdoor Recreation Network’s conference – Outdoor Recreation 2030: Future Trends and Insights. In his presentation he shared some of key trends emerging from our analysis of over 10 years of data from the UK’s biggest outdoor recreation and tourism surveys (including Natural England’s Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment, SNH’s Scotland’s People and Nature Survey and the Great Britain Tourism Survey). He shared seven key trends with the audience:
More of us are visiting the outdoors more often – in 2009 54% of adults in England visited the outdoors at least once a week but that increased to 65% in by 2019. A similar trend was recorded in Scotland.
We are taking more short, close to home visits to urban greenspaces – possibly reflecting a growing urban population, there has been a particularly sharp growth in the amount of time we spend in urban greenspaces like parks and playing fields. Related, the visits we take are increasingly likely to be close to home, taken on foot and shorter in duration.
More of the time we spend outdoors is motivated by health and wellbeing – when we visit the outdoors this is increasingly likely to be for health and exercise reasons or to relax and unwind. This trend may be linked to the population’s growing recognition of the benefits of spending time outdoors – our survey data has proven that more time outdoors can bring both physical and metal health benefits.
Domestic tourism has grown, especially short breaks to the countryside and coast – following the 2008 economic crash the volume of domestic holidays taken at in the UK (‘staycations’) increased significantly. Even when consumer confidence recovered the trend to holiday t home continued.
Children spend the most time outdoors – but this may be starting to decline – although children typically spend more time outside than adults, recent trends suggest that this may be changing. In particular there are indications that children aged 10 and older are spending less time outside with their friends but more time socialising using digital channels such as online gaming and social media. There are also clear signs of a ‘dip’ in nature connection in teenage years.
We have a changing relationship with nature – the last 10 years of data show that there is a link between how often people spent time outdoors and how much they care about protecting the environment. In the last 2 years levels of concern over the natural environment, climate change and a loss of biodiversity have started to increase – possibly driven by programmes like Blue Planet and the media coverage around Greta Thumberg and Extinction Rebellion. However, the population continues to spend much more time worrying about other issues – in p articular the economy and Brexit. Also there is still a significant gap between the proportion of us who claimed to care about the environment and the proportion who are willing to take any serious action to protect it.
Inequality is at risk of growing – although more of are visiting the outdoors more often and gaining the benefits this time in nature brings - there continue to be significant demographic inequalities. Both adults and children in the less affluent socio-economic groups, residents of more deprived areas and people with a black or minority ethnic background are significantly less like to regularly take part in outdoor recreation of any sort. Ill health is increasingly cited as a barrier which stops people from visiting the outdoors and there has been a decline in the perceived quality of local greenspaces such as parks – possibly discouraging people from wishing to spend time there.
Our view is that these trends give us some clear evidence of the importance of providing opportunities for people to spend time outdoors. It is clear that spending time outdoors is good for the body and mind, it can help us to connect with nature and care more about our fragile natural environment and more people spending time outdoors can bring economic benefits and has the potential to reduce inequality and bring people together.
However, the challenge is for government and policy makers to recognise these benefits – their opportunity for the future is to provide the sector with the funding and support it need to protect, develop and promote our parks, urban greenspaces, countryside and coast!