How fast is location-based entertainment spending recovering?

The U.S. Federal Government does an excellent job of tracking consumer spending. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) collects data from businesses on their revenues every quarter. One category the BEA tracks is location-based entertainment, campgrounds, and related recreational services. The category includes location-based entertainment (LBE) such as amusement parks and family entertainment centers (FECs) but excludes spending at motion picture theaters, live entertainment venues, and spectator sports, making it a good indicator of spending at most typical LBEs, including family entertainment centers

In our August issue, we reported that average household spending for this entertainment category was 39% lower in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the 1st quarter of pre-pandemic 2019.

The BEA just released data for the third quarter of 2022. Spending on entertainment, campgrounds and related recreational services has recovered by nine percentage points from the previous quarter but is still 30% lower than in the 1st quarter of pre-pandemic 2019. Spending at amusement parks, LBEs, and similar venues still has a good way to go to get back to pre-pandemic levels.