As Korean society underwent rapid changes, its members began to become more aware of the quality of living and the leisure culture has also rapidly developed in both quantity and quality. With continuing interest in leisure and leisure sports, there h...
As Korean society underwent rapid changes, its members began to become more aware of the quality of living and the leisure culture has also rapidly developed in both quantity and quality. With continuing interest in leisure and leisure sports, there have been conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches in the subject. Nevertheless, there have been few practical studies on changes in preference of leisure sports industry programs in modern society and appropriate countermeasures in the leisure sports industry in regards to changes in leisure demands.
To this end, this study was aimed to identify the leisure constrains, leisure absorption and other influential factors for leisure activity participants, interpret effects of leisure demands in the leisure decision-making process in terms of preference characteristics of leisure sports industry program participants, and thus provide foundational data for formulating strategies for promoting the leisure sports industry that will induce further involvement in leisure sports programs. This study has the following study objects.
First, to identify the leisure demands of members of the modern society in terms of demographic characteristics, leisure involvement characteristics, leisure constrains and leisure absorption.
Second, to examine leisure sports preference types according to demographic characteristics, leisure involvement characteristics, leisure constrains, and leisure absorption.
Third, to propose development strategies for the leisure sports industry based on the leisure sports preference types.
In order to achieve the study objectives above, 200 persons were randomly selected from each of the districts in Gwangju (Dong-gu, Seo-gu, Nam-gu, Buk-gu, and Gwangsan-gu) from males and females in ages from 20 through 50. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were distributed, 839 of which were recollected for result analysis. The results could be summarized as below.
First, structural factor was found to be the most important constraint factor, followed by inherent factor and interpersonal factor. Therefore, the most influential factors constraining leisure activities could be interpreted as economic reasons, transport and lack of information.
Second, intellectual absorption was found to be the highest, followed by active absorption and behavioral absorption. Most of the respondents remained at intellectual absorption level and few reached the behavioral absorption level. In other words, Most of the respondents were enjoying leisure as simple hobbies.
Third, the survey respondents were mostly involved in relaxing leisure activities. Physical leisure activities were found to be the least. In terms of preferred leisure activities, travel activities were found to be the highest, followed by physical activities. This implies that demands for travel activities and physical activities will rapidly increase in the coming years.
Fourth and fifth, the most significant leisure constraint factor affecting leisure preference was found to be structural constraints, and the most important leisure absorption factor affecting leisure preference was found to be active absorption.
Drawing from the study results above, the following strategies can be proposed for developing the leisure industry.
First, establishment of efficient transport systems and construction of leisure sports information networks are required to facilitate more leisure activities by resolving structural leisure constraints.
Second, substantial leisure sports infrastructure is necessary for differentiating leisure sports activities according to levels of leisure sports absorption experiences.
Third, simultaneous marketing activities must be carried out for promoting both physical and travel leisure activities. Thematic multi-purpose resorts also need to be developed in order to comprehensively satisfy the demands for physical activities and travel activities at the same time.
Fourth, public facilities such as community sports centers and cultural centers must be utilized to allow the general public to enjoy leisure activities at low costs. The government also should make conscious efforts in developing related public sports facilities and cultural facilities.
Fifth, infrastructure must be put in place to allow personalized leisure programs and other customized services in terms of program contents, duration and so on.