Introduction to Attractions, Recreation & Leisure Activities

Many of us have childhood (and adult!) memories of going on family vacations to theme parks like Disney or taking day trips to Six Flags or even more locally at Splashdown Beach.

In Chapter 2, we defined tourism as travel with a purpose. For many, that purpose involves engaging in activities such as sightseeing, visiting natural, cultural, historical, and recreational attractions, sporting and entertainment venues, participating in leisure activities, and experiencing the local culture.  These activities connect us with the past, introduce us to diverse cultures, and deepen our understanding of the world we inhabit. In this chapter, we will look at three broad categories of “attractions” that often influence our destination choices and help create lifelong memories and experiences:

• Cultural Attractions
• Recreation
• Leisure Activities

Cultural attractions are those places of culture, heritage, nature, or activities that draw people to visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Cultural/Heritage attractions include historic sites and landmarks, museums and performing arts, zoos, and culinary tourism.

Recreation and leisure refers to activities that people do outside of work for pleasure. The recreation category includes theme parks, national and state parks, golf resorts, ski resorts, and water sports.  Leisure attractions include spectator sports, casino gaming, mega events, festivals, and agritourism.

To exist, these attractions often need to generate revenue to pay for site operations, to pay for staff, and to run educational programs. The sector involves a range of organizations, some privately owned, while others are government-funded or non-profit. Revenue to culture- and nature-based sites has the added benefit of supporting their preservation as well as to build awareness and a deeper understanding in the public.

Tourism Attractions & The Experience Economy

In the late 1990’s, authors and management advisors B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore coined the term “experience economy.”  The experience economy is an economic concept where businesses focus on creating memorable experiences for customers rather than just selling goods or services. In this economy, people are willing to pay more for unique, enjoyable, or meaningful experiences, such as going to a concert, dining at a themed restaurant, or taking part in a personalized travel adventure. The idea is that these experiences are more valuable to consumers because they create lasting memories and emotional connections. This concept is especially important when it comes to tourist attractions, recreation, and leisure activities.

The Good Tourism Institute notes, “Travellers are more and more searching for meaningful and unique experiences they will remember for a lifetime. More specifically, they don’t want to tick off the same list as everyone else. They are looking for an actual connection with the local population and enjoy untouched nature. They look for experiences they will think back to ten years later. To put it simply, travellers no longer want to just visit places, they want to truly experience it. And they’re also willing to pay more for it.”^[1]

Examples of experiences might include Wild Encounters at the Bronx Zoo, where visitors chat with zookeepers and have up-close experiences with animals, a princess (or knight) makeover at Disney World’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, or a guided tour and champagne toast at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Cultural Heritage Attractions

Cultural heritage is the living expression of a society’s identity. It encompasses not only the tangible artifacts found in museums and archaeological sites but also the intangible aspects such as traditions, languages, cuisine, and art forms.^[2] Cultural heritage tourism provides a gateway to understanding the heart and soul of different communities, fostering a sense of appreciation for the rich tapestry of human civilization. The UNWTO defines cultural tourism as “a type of tourism activity in which the visitor’s essential motivation is to learn, discover, experience and consume the tangible and intangible cultural attractions/products in a tourism destination.”^[3]

Below, we’ll review four types of cultural heritage attractions: Historical Sites and Landmarks, Museums and Art Galleries, and Performing Arts.

Historic Sites and Landmarks

A landmark is a prominent or well-known feature in a location, often used as a point of reference. Landmarks can be natural, like a mountain or a river, or man-made, such as a tall building, bridge, or monument. They are recognizable and significant, often becoming symbols of the area they are located in, like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco or the Walkway Over the Hudson in Poughkeepsie.  While they are popular tourist attractions, they don’t necessarily have historical significance.

On the other hand, a historic landmark is specifically recognized for its historical, cultural, or architectural importance. These are places that have played a significant role in history or represent important aspects of the past. For example, Independence Hall in Philadelphia is a historic landmark because of its role in the American Revolution and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

• Eiffel Tower: The most visited monument in the world. As France’s symbol in the world, and the showcase of Paris, today it welcomes almost 7 million visitors a year (around 75% of whom are foreigners), making it the most visited monument that you have to pay for in the world.
• Statue of Liberty: One of the most iconic landmarks in the United States, the Statue of Liberty Museum welcomes 4.3 million annually
• The Pyramids of Giza: Over 14 million people visit Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza each year, making it one of the most popular tourist sites in the world.

Art Museums and Galleries

Art museums and galleries may be public, private, or commercial. Both present works of art to the public, exhibiting a diverse range of art from more well-known artists to emerging artists. Exhibitions are assembled and organized by a curator who oversees the installation of the works in the gallery space. However, art museums and public galleries have different mandates and, therefore, offer different visitor experiences.

Art museums collect historical and modern works of art for educational purposes and to preserve them for future generations. Public galleries, on the other hand, do not generally collect or conserve works of art. Rather, they focus on exhibitions of contemporary works as well as on programs of lectures, publications, and other events.

The number of museums in the United States has more than quadrupled since 1950.  They support over 726,000 American jobs and contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year.^[4] There are many types of museums, including general, art, science and technology, natural history, history, and military.

Some of the most popular US museums include The Smithsonian in Washington, DC; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Natural History in New York City; and Chicago’s Field Museum and Art Institute.  Internationally, must-visit museums include The Louvre and Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery and The Tate Modern in London, and the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence.

Here in the Hudson Valley, we are fortunate to have our very own hidden gem—the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. Home to a notable collection of Hudson River School paintings, the center also includes works by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Georgia O’Keefe.

Zoos also fall under the museum umbrella. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums,  they attract more than 183 million annual visitors in the US and over 200 million worldwide – more visitors than NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB annual attendance combined!^[5]

Performing Arts

Performing arts generally include theatre companies and dinner theatres, dance companies, musical groups, and artists and other performing arts companies. Music, dance, and theatre are often key features of cultural promotion intended to attract tourists and are regularly featured in tour operators’ itineraries.^[6] This is especially true for destinations like New York City. Broadway alone accounts for a significant visitor impact:

• In the 2022-23 season, Broadway shows welcomed 12.3 million admissions ($1.6 billion in ticket sales)
• In the 2018-2019 season, Broadway contributed an astonishing $14.7 billion to the city’s economy.
• Approximately 35% of those attendances were by people from the New York City metropolitan area.
• Tourists made 65% of admissions: 46% from the United States and 19% from other countries.

Recreational Attractions

Recreation can be defined as the pursuit of leisure activities during one’s spare time and can include vastly different activities such as golfing, sport fishing, and rock climbing.^[7] Defining recreation as it pertains to tourism, however, is more challenging. For this chapter, we’ll include amusement parks, outdoor recreation, national parks, golf courses and resorts, mountain resorts, water-based recreation and adventure tourism.

Amusement & Theme Parks

Amusement parks and theme parks are both destinations designed for entertainment, offering rides, games, and attractions, but they differ in their focus and experience.

Amusement parks typically offer a wide range of rides and attractions, including roller coasters, Ferris wheels, water rides, and more. The rides are usually the central feature, with the park’s layout designed to provide maximum fun and thrills. Examples of amusement parks in the US include Coney Island in New York, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, and Cedar Point in Ohio.

Theme parks are built around a specific theme or concept that influences the park’s design, attractions, and overall atmosphere. Everything from the architecture to the rides and even the staff’s costumes is designed to immerse visitors in that theme. Today, it is hard not to compare any theme park destination to Disneyland and Disney World, which set the standard and remain among the worlds most visited

Outdoor Recreation

Outdoor recreation is another umbrella term. It can be defined as “outdoor activities that take place in a natural setting, as opposed to a highly cultivated or managed landscape such as a playing field or golf course”.^[9] This term is typically applied to outdoor activities that individuals engage in and that are located close to their community. When these activities are further away, and people must travel some distance to participate in them, they are often described as adventure tourism.

Another term that is used, one that overlaps with the definitions of outdoor recreation and adventure tourism, is nature-based tourism, which refers to “those tourism experiences that are directly or indirectly dependent on the natural environment”.^[10] This term is often used to describe activities that are closely connected to nature, such as whale watching, birding, or self-propelled travel such as hiking and kayaking.

National Parks

It may come as no surprise that the venues where many recreation and leisure activities are conducted is within local, county, state, and national parks, forests, and recreation areas.

Parks are most often owned and operated by public sector agencies at the local/regional, state, and national levels of government for reasons that extend well beyond just recreational pursuits. These reasons often include designation due to an area’s natural beauty or geographical features, historical or cultural significance, or a particular scientific interest in an area’s formation, its natural resources, or biological diversity. These varying perspectives are reflected in the US National Park Service’s (NPS) mission of “conserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations. The Service is also responsible for managing a great variety of national and international programs designed to help extend the benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation throughout this country and the world.”^[11]

The NPS currently manages 63 national parks and more than 420 historic sites, monuments, battlefields, rivers, seashores, scenic trails, preserves, and recreation areas. The NPS welcomes 318 million visitors annually and supports a staff of 200,000 employees.

While national parks are well-known examples, publicly funded recreation can encompass a wide range of initiatives, including city parks, state parks, wildlife reserves, historic sites, public swimming pools, sports facilities, and community centers. Here in New York, our 180 state parks saw record attendance in 2022 with 79.5 million visits.

Golf Courses and Resorts

The National Golf Foundation (NGF) reports that 45 million people over the age of six played golf – both on-course and off-course – in 2023. Additionally, 3.4 million played on a golf course for the first time that year.^[12] The NGF’s 2023 Economic Impact Report also noted that the total economic impact generated by the business of golf is $226.5 billion and that golf supports approximately 1.65 million jobs.^[13]

Golf is a significant tourism attraction in the US, with California, Florida, New York, and Texas being the top states for golf. Golf.com and Golf Digest each publish and annual list of the top golf courses and resorts in the US and around the world. These tend to be luxury, full-service properties offering pools, spas, gourmet dining, and other high-end amenities.

Ski & Mountain Resorts

The US offers many world-class facilities and high-quality snow conditions that appeal for downhill skiers and snowboarders. Many of mountain resorts have diversified to offer summer operations, including mountain bike parks, hiking, and sightseeing. Mountain resorts can be separated into two principal categories: destination resorts and regional resorts.

Destination mountain resorts are often significantly larger and offer a greater range of amenities such as on-mountain accommodation and food services; they are also generally marketed to out-of-area and international visitors. Popular ski destinations in the northeast include Vermont and New Hampshire, while Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho dominate the west. On the other hand, regional mountain resorts are usually smaller in size and capacity, have fewer amenities, and often cater more directly to the local community such as Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks and Windham Mountain Club in the Catskills.

Together, both types of ski resorts have a significant impact on tourism and the economy:^[14]

• There are approximately 470 ski areas operating in 37 states in the US – and 52 in New York
• During the 2021/22 season boasted more than 60 million skier visits; 10.7 million of which were unique visits
• Most resorts offer single tickets, season passes, and multi-resort passes
• Many resorts also offer a variety of additional activities such as lessons, tubing, skating, spa, and dining

Water-Based Recreation and Tourism

Water-based recreation and tourism in the US is extensive and varied. The shoreline of more than 95,471 miles provides ideal opportunities for coastal recreation and tourism, as well as inland, fresh water-based activities on lakes and rivers. Activities include scuba diving, boat tours, sport fishing, paddle sports (sea kayaking, river kayaking, canoeing, sailing, stand up paddleboarding (SUP), and more.

Adventure Tourism

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), adventure tourism is “a type of tourism which usually takes place in destinations with specific geographic features and landscape and tends to be associated with a physical activity, cultural exchange, interaction and engagement with nature. This experience may involve some kind of real or perceived risk and may require significant physical and/or mental effort.”^[15]

Examples of adventure tourism include zip lining in the Costa Rican rainforest, scuba diving in Great Barrier Reef, hiking the volcanic fields of Iceland, or whitewater rafting in Colorado. According to industry data, the global adventure tourism travel market is valued at $282 billion and is expected to grow steadily through 2030.^[16]

Leisure Activities & Attractions

Leisure is a very broad category that overlaps with many of the areas discussed elsewhere in this chapter, such as performing arts, zoos, and museums.  The major types of leisure activities that we’ll discuss in this section are spectator sports, casino gaming, festivals and events, and culinary/agritourism.

Spectator Sports and Sport Tourism

Sports events such as college and professional football, baseball, basketball, and soccer have historically been more popular than other forms of available entertainment. This could be due in part to their rabid fan bases and long-standing rivalries that fuel the competitive spirit of the sports fans. As anyone who has attended a University of Michigan game in the “Big House” with it’s capacity of 107,000, will understand that sporting events do not “just happen”. It takes considerable organization and coordination of many moving parts to ensure a smooth product that might seem effortless to the casual fan.

According to the UNWTO, sports tourism is one of the fastest-growing sectors in tourism. Sports tourism is any activity in which people are attracted to a particular location to attend a sport-related event as either a participant, spectator, or visitor to sports attractions. Spectator sports and the growing field of sports tourism also contribute significantly to the economy and have become a major part of the tourism industry. Grandview Research reports that “the global sports tourism market was valued at USD 587.87 billion in 2022” and is expected to continue to grow over the next decade.  Some examples of sports tourism include:

• Olympic Games: The Summer and Winter Olympics are among the most prominent international sporting events. Travelers from around the world visit the host country to witness the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as various Olympic competitions, such as gymnastics, swimming, skiing, figure skating, and more.
• FIFA World Cup: The FIFA World Cup is the most-watched sporting event globally. Fans travel to the host country to support their national teams and enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of the tournament. Countries like Brazil, Russia, and Qatar have hosted or will host the World Cup, attracting millions of tourists.
• Wimbledon: Tennis enthusiasts flock to London, England, for the Wimbledon Championships, one of the most prestigious tennis tournaments in the world. Visitors can watch matches on the famous grass courts and soak in the tournament’s rich traditions.

Casino Gaming

As discussed previously in Chapter 6, casino gaming has grown significantly in the United States and globally. Casinos are found all over the United States in major cities, riverboats, and on Native American lands. Most casinos involve other facets of the Hospitality industry, such as lodging, food and beverage, golf, entertainment, spas, etc. US casinos generate an economic impact of more than $328 billion and support 1.8 million jobs.

Mega-Events

A mega-event is a large scale, highly prestigious event such as the sporting events mentioned above or a global economic summit. These events typically gain tremendous media coverage and have major economic impacts on the host location, both positive and negative. High levels of tourism (1 million visitors) associated with a mega-event brings revenue, but the revenue may be outweighed by substantial capital and social costs incurred by the host. The events are often awarded to host destinations through a bidding process and gain tremendous media coverage.

Special Events

A special event is a one-time or infrequent specific ritual, presentation, performance, or celebration. Special events are planned and created to mark a special occasion, such as a presidential inauguration or a royal wedding in the United Kingdom.  Like mega-events, there may be significant media coverage and economic impact for the host city or destination.

A hallmark event is a unique event that is often identified with the location where it is held, like Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or Oktoberfest in Munich. Hallmark events contribute significant economic benefits and even can create a competitive advantage for the host city or destination that attracts tourists.

A festival is a themed public celebration that conveys, through a kaleidoscope of activities, certain meaning to participants and spectators. Festivals are often celebrations of community or culture and feature music, dance, or dramatic performances. Examples include Lollapalooza, the Cannes Film Festival, and Junkanoo in the Bahamas.

Culinary & Agritourism Tourism

The National Agricultural Law Center defines agritourism as “the crossroads of tourism and agriculture” and “a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining and/or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner.”^[17]

The local food movement is growing in popularity; agritourism presents a great opportunity to use farm resources to create experiences for visitors, whether they be for entertainment, education, or as venues for business/meeting events. Agritourism can include a variety of activities and attractions:

• Fixed attractions such as historic farms, living farms, museums, food processing facilities, and natural areas
• Events based on an agricultural theme such as conferences, rodeos, agricultural fairs, and food festivals
• Services such as accommodations (B&Bs), tours, retailing (farm produce and products), and activities (fishing, hiking, etc.) that incorporate agricultural products and/or experiences

Agritourism is also an umbrella term that encompasses culinary and beverage tourism. Industry experts predict it will continue to attract visitors and play a growing role in the US economy. Locally, agritourism is a major driver for Hudson Valley tourism. Our wineries, cideries, distilleries, “U-pick” farms, and apple orchards continue to attract record numbers of visitors each year.

Conclusion

This chapter explored cultural attractions, recreational sites, and leisure activities, highlighting their significance within the hospitality and tourism industry. Cultural heritage attractions, such as historical sites and museums, play a crucial role in preserving history and fostering a deeper understanding of different cultures. Recreational attractions, including national parks and outdoor activities, promote physical and mental well-being while providing economic benefits to local communities. Leisure activities, characterized by their focus on relaxation and enjoyment, contribute to the overall quality of life and offer numerous opportunities for personal and social enrichment.