What you need to know

Leisure consumption is composed of the in-home and out-of-home segments. The in-home segment, which is mainly online leisure activities, benefited from the social distancing measures. The out-of-home segment which includes most offline activities suffered from the outbreak.

In the near future, the in-home segment will drive the entire sector’s recovery given that consumers skew toward in-home leisure, whilst the sustainability of many out-of-home leisure businesses will be challenged. Pure out-of-home entertainment such as KTV, pubs, bars, live sports games or live performances will face significant challenges during the recovery period.

Challenges come from three sides. Consumers will overall stay prudent toward leisure spending and they want to spend wisely, but out-of-home entertainment activities usually cost more than their in-home counterparts. Consumers want their leisure activities to benefit personal learning and improvement; however pure entertainment cannot support this motivation. The fast development of digital tech enables online delivery (eg live streaming) of many traditionally offline leisure activities. Consumers are willing to switch to the online delivery format when it comes to participating in pure entertainment activities such as watching live sports games.

Leisure players, particularly those situated in the out-of-home segment, can revamp their market strategies by capitalising on consumers’ passion for learning knowledge and skills and responsible consumption. These two consumer trends can help reorient brand positioning, consumer targeting and product propositions. Responsible consumption also opens up opportunities to justify the value of the offerings to the mature high-income consumers.

Covered in this report

  • Overview and future outlook of the leisure market post-outbreak

  • Key leisure trends and opportunities to watch for sector’s recovery

  • Consumers’ attitudes and preferences toward in-home and out-of-home leisure

  • Consumer preference between online (eg live streaming) and offline delivery of leisure activities

  • Motivations of attending leisure activities

(Travel is discussed as a part of out-of-home leisure. More detailed analysis will be covered in the upcoming report Impact of COVID-19 on Travel – China, October 2020.)

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