Natural England

Over a third of adults (37%) surveyed hadn’t made a leisure trip in the last week, according to the England Leisure Visit Survey published today, with 40% saying that they were too busy working or studying to go out. Poor health was cited as the second most common reason (22%).

Dr Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, the body which led the consortium that commissioned the research, said: “People are missing out on the wide range of benefits that the natural environment offers, particularly to their health and wellbeing. This is why we have launched our health campaign to encourage more people to enjoy the health benefits that the natural environment provides.”

There were an estimated 3.6 billion leisure trips in England in 2005, down from 5.4 billion in 2002/03, although some of this reduction may have been caused by changes in survey methodology. Trip numbers were growing modestly in the early 1990s, but since 1998 there appears to be an underlying downward trend for all visits, including trips to the countryside.

Despite fewer visits overall, the value of trips is growing with people spending more money per outing. The average spend per trip is £25.09 with higher levels of spend in towns and cities and at seaside resorts. The estimated total value was £90 billion, with £9.4 billion of this in the countryside where the average spend per trip was £13.38.

Although fewer people are going out overall the ones who do are more likely to be walking than leisure shopping! 18% said this was the main reason for their trip compared to 12% in 2002/03. The other most popular activities were eating/drinking 18%, leisure shopping 13% and visiting friends/relatives 11%.

For the first time the 2005 survey measured trips to land mapped by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The right to access this land was rolled out across England throughout the twelve-month survey period and during this time 21.2 million visits by people living in England were recorded.

For further information, please contact Beth Rose or Nuala Murray on tel 01242 533 306/398.

Footnotes/Notes for Editors:

1. England Leisure Visits – report of the 2005 survey is available from the Natural England web site at http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/leisure/recreation/dayvisits05.pdf

2. The survey was commissioned by a consortium led by the Countryside Agency (now part of Natural England), and including Defra, the Forestry Commission, the Environment Agency and 8 of the 9 National Parks in England. The New Forest National Park was not in existence when the survey was commissioned.

3. This type of household survey has been commissioned every few years, since the early 1980s, to provide information on the volume and value of trips to the countryside and other leisure destinations. The data helps Natural England and other organisations involved in promoting and providing outdoor recreation to plan and prioritise work.

4. A telephone survey of 23,500 households in England took place between February 2005 and February 2006. Interviews were undertaken with a randomly selected person living in the house aged 16 or over. A Leisure visit is defined as a round trip from home for leisure purposes (self-defined). There is no lower time limit or minimum distance, so brief trips close to home are included. Leisure visits from a work address, for example a visit to a gym after work, are also included as long as the respondent started out from and returned home that day.

5. Because the 2002/03 survey was face to face and the 2005 survey a telephone one, some caution is necessary in interpreting the changes between the two surveys. Due to other changes in the survey methodology the 2002/03 data was re-analysed to make it more comparable with the 2005 the survey. As the 2002/03 survey had collected data from residents in Scotland and Wales, this involved removing this data before re-analysis of the trips made in the last week to England by respondents from English addresses only. The 2002/03 data was also re-analysed to take account of a change in the survey recall period from two weeks to one week. The adjustment increased the estimated number of trips in 2002/03, compared with the results published for that year by approximately 19% overall.

6. Natural England launched its health campaign on 8 November 2006, the first of its four national campaigns to reconnect people with the natural environment.

The health campaign will encourage:

• more people to get more health benefit from regular contact with the natural environment wherever they live.
• health professionals to make more use of the natural environment as part of the total health care they give to their patients.
• professionals who manage public open spaces to improve the amount and quality of green space near where people live.

Natural England will do this by building a coalition of environmental, educational, scientific, health and community organisations to bring the environment to the forefront of the health agenda.

7. A new right to access areas of land mapped under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 commenced between September 2004 and October 2005. More information can be found at http://www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk.