Since the beginning of the Great Recession, average household inflation-adjusted out-of-home entertainment spending has decreased. Comparing household spending in 2007 with spending in 2010, community-based entertainment spending saw a decrease of 8% and entertainment spending on trips saw a 14% decrease. The decreases occurred across all household incomes.
The recessionary decreases are only part of a longer-term trend of decreasing household out-of-home entertainment spending that started in 2001 for entertainment on trips and 2003 for community-based entertainment. The steepest spending decline has been for entertainment spending on trips, which is down 30% in 2010 compared to 2000 whereas average household community-based entertainment spending is only down 4%.
The chart below shows the decreases based on an index of 100 equaling average household community-based entertainment spending in 2000. In 2010, community-based entertainment decreased to an index of 94 (-4%). Entertainment spending on trips decreased from an index of 78 (78% of what community-based spending was in that same year) to a 2010 index of 55 (-30%). Total average household spending on all out-of-home entertainment decreased over the 10 years by 15%.
Over the decade average household community-based entertainment spending is basically staying even with minor variations whereas there has been significant cutbacks with entertainment spending on trips.
About Randy White
Randy White is CEO and co-founder of the White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group. The 31-year-old company, with offices in Kansas City, Missouri, has worked for over 600 clients in 37 countries throughout the world. Projects the company has designed and produced have won seventeen 1st place awards. Randy is considered to be one of the world's foremost authorities on feasibility, brand development, design and production of leisure experience destinations including entertainment, eatertainment, edutainment, agritainment/agritourism, play and leisure facilities.
Randy was featured on the Food Network's Unwrapped television show as an eatertainment expert, quoted as an entertainment/edutainment center expert in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times and Time magazine and received recognition for family-friendly designs by Pizza Today magazine. One of the company's projects was featured as an example of an edutainment project in the book The Experience Economy. Numerous national newspapers have interviewed him as an expert on shopping center and mall entertainment and retail-tainment.
Randy is a graduate of New York University. Prior to repositioning the company in 1989 to work exclusively in the leisure and learning industry, White Hutchinson was active in the retail/commercial real estate industry as a real estate consultancy specializing in workouts/turnarounds of commercial projects. In the late 1960s to early 1980s, Randy managed a diversified real estate development company that developed, owned and managed over 2.0 million square feet of shopping centers and mixed-use projects and 2,000 acres of residential subdivisions. Randy has held the designations of CSM (Certified Shopping Center Manager) and Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
He has authored over 150 articles that have been published in over 40 leading entertainment/leisure and early childhood education industry magazines and journals and has been a featured speaker and keynoter at over 40 different conventions and trade groups.
Randy is the editor of his company's Leisure eNewsletter, has a blog and posts on Twitter and Linkedin.
