Hannah Elderfield is associate insight director at Canvas8. She oversees the Science Of series and has worked with global clients including Facebook, Nike, BelVita, Wagamama, the UK Government, the FCO, and Superbrands. Outside of work, she enjoys watching trashy TV shows, bunkering up at home, and adding half-read books to her bookshelf.

In the Leisure chapter of the 2017 Expert Outlook, Canvas8 speaks to Randy White, CEO and co-founder of the White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Jon Hawkins, editor of 

, and Mark Walker, content marketing and social media manager at Eventbrite UK & Ireland.

Randy White is CEO and co-founder of the White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group. He is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on entertainment, eatertainment, edutainment, social-tainment, agritourism and leisure.

The trend we’ve been seeing for a while now is this migration of real world leisure experiences into a digital world – we're calling it 'e-leisure'. We’ve seen the amount of time and money people are spending on screen-based entertainment – particularly on mobile – grow enormously compared to the out-of-home leisure destinations. Part of the reason is because digital gives people more control over their leisure time; you can stream and downstream anywhere, order food from your sofa and watch sports in VR at home.

But people are thinking of leisure choices in two key dimensions – experience and convenience – where it’s often a trade-off between time, effort and money. So the more convenient digital leisure options become, the more the out-of-home experience has to do to lure people away from their screens. Take the cinema as an example. Back in 2002, the average American went to the movie theatre 4.9 times a year. Last year they only went 3.8 times. That's about a 25% decrease in attendance. So how are the cinemas reacting? They raised the visual projection with IMAX but that wasn't enough, so they’re now looking at the whole experience. They're putting in electric lounge chairs, adding food outlets and they’re seeing a higher attendance rate simply because the fidelity and quality of that out-of-home experience is winning against the digital options.

The average American only has about five hours of leisure time a day and to the higher socio-economic groups, this time is more valuable than money, so they don’t want it to go to waste. If they’re going to pay for it, it needs to be great. This is resulting in a shift in out-of-home leisure options to more premium, high fidelity experiences, with mediocre facilities losing out because they aren’t keeping up.

Better cinema experiences can combat the convenience of streaming

The lower socio-economic groups are spending big in the digital world and it’s probably because of price – they can get more bang for their buck in terms of entertainment hours for less expense – whereas the higher socio-economic are generally still spending out-of-home. They’re the ones going out to the restaurants, they're taking their families to Disney World. That's the group that has the dollars to readily afford these high fidelity outcome experiences, and although the lower socio-economic groups can't afford it as much, they're saving up to do it, they're still seeking it.

It’s not just about the entertainment factor. A major component of these high fidelity experiences is the socialisation aspect. To get people out the house and willing to pay up, it has to be a really great social experience. 

 is a great example of that and it’s also why things like 

I think augmented reality is a big threat, but it's also an opportunity for some of the out-of-home facilities. If you look at VR, it's become a tool for theme parks to remake old roller coasters, rather than spending $10 million on a new one. But what VR doesn’t give you is that in-depth social experience. AR is already there and I can see it changing the whole environment into some sort of game. We’re going to see more games like 

, and people are going to have goggles on walking around their house.

Sociable experiences could boost out-of-home leisure spending in 2017

Jon Hawkins is the editor of monthly independent travel magazine Escapism.

It’s increasingly clear that people want more from the destinations they visit, so places are having to find innovative ways to attract people – be it through social media or more experience-based travel. Experiential travel is an area of the industry that’s going to keep growing because there’s such huge demand from people, and businesses are taking note. Take 

 as a prime example. It’s the idea that you’ll be able to pay for a local person at your city of choice to take you on an experience in that place. The point is that Airbnb is stretching beyond just travel to actually delivering local experiences. And while there are a number of companies with a similar offering – 

 – they’re quite niche, often daring experiences where the idea of paying to spend time with a stranger in an unfamiliar place becomes quite a leap for people to make. But when it comes to a company like Airbnb, its sheer scale brings that mindset to a lot more people.

Airlines and hotels are also having to respond to this experiential demand. Icelandair is extending its offering with a program called 

, which lets travellers stop over in Reykjavík and hang out with a local. The Four Seasons is doing a similar thing with its 

 programme that gives people access to the things that fall under a tourist's radar. All this demand, coupled with the stigma that doing touristy things brings, could mean that companies offering local experiences will really take off.

Before social media, people might have gone to work and told their friends where they went. Now, people are telling the whole world that they’re in Iran or standing on some island surrounded by penguins

Another travel pursuit that’s becoming increasingly popular, and almost fashionable, is the idea of digital detoxing. But I think people are getting past this point now. In reality, no one can bear to be without technology for long; people have to make a conscious effort to detach themselves, which makes relaxing much harder. Technology is such an important part of the way we travel that I think unhooking from it en masse is out the question, and that’s something companies need to consider.

Travel destinations are going to benefit from harnessing the power of social media. Take the popularisation of the 

 as an example of that. The virality of hygge has been huge and the concept is one that a lot of places will try and tap into because people are talking about Danish culture in a very positive way.

Before social media, people might have gone to work and told their friends where they went or where they’re going. Now, people are telling the whole world that they’re in Iran or standing on some island surrounded by penguins, and this culture of sharing – sometimes bragging about – life experiences is maximising other people’s perception of how you live your life. It’s helping people create a brand for themselves that’s really exciting, so I can see companies feeding much more into that demand. Brands like Secret Compass don’t simply exist because people want to share Instagram pictures of themselves, but this factor hasn’t hurt their popularity.

Many travellers now seek to live as a local

Mark Walker is head of content and social at Eventbrite in the UK & Ireland.

We’ve identified two major trends that are going to change the leisure landscape next year, the first of which is around personalisation. People want brands to really understand their preferences and recommend experiences based on them, so companies are going to have to get a lot smarter at delivering their experiences in the right way and at the right time.

The second major trend that we see is that people want reduced friction when they’re purchasing tickets for leisure experiences. So, for example, when people are on Facebook and they see a friend attending an event, they don’t even want to click off the page to purchase tickets – they want to be able to do it in Facebook. People don’t want to go through hoops and multiple links to get their tickets, and I think a lot of companies need to completely remove the barriers and make this a frictionless process.

One type of event that’s proving increasingly popular is the obstacle endurance race, like 

. It’s a niche trend that’s not just growing in the UK, but all around the world. We’re also seeing a lot of demand for TV-based live show experiences, and we saw it done really well with the 

Sherlock Holmes Experience at Madame Tussauds

. People love TV, but they want to feel an even greater connection to the shows they watch; they want to meet the actors, get to know their back stories and what’s coming up in the future seasons. And finding other people that are just as nuts about a particular show is so important to people, so I think these events are really going to take off.

People want to feel a greater connection through live events

I’m also seeing increasing demand for RFID at events. It’s a bit of technology that makes the whole experience smoother and faster than it already is. For starters, people don’t want to arrive at an event and queue to get in or stress about remembering to bring their ticket because all these things reduce the pleasure of their experience. But RFID alleviates that stress by letting you just turn up with a wristband that’s scanned upon entry. The tech also lets people pre-load money on to the wristband to make purchases around a festival, so it’s a frictionless win-win for consumers and event organisers.

Ultimately, people crave real life connections. They want to go out to dates, go to festivals, see speakers at a conference, and the overall demand for leisure is growing because people will still want to pay for that. And despite there being a lot of turbulence in the world, I think this fundamental desire isn’t going to shift. Take the restaurant industry. Everyone thought that Brexit would stop discretionary spending, but the food and beverage industry in London actually had a record summer after the referendum. It’s because leisure experiences are a way for people to let their hair down and enjoy themselves, so I think 2017 is going to be one of the strongest years for the leisure sector.

Looking forward, virtual reality could have an interesting impact on the leisure sector. People are always going to want to be at an event in person if they can afford the time or money, but if they can’t, then VR could be a great substitute. Saying that, I don’t see VR revolutionising the in-event experience for people who are physically there, but I can see AR doing that. Layering the digital experience and the physical experience is fascinating. Augmented reality can gamify events and get people more engaged, so next year I can see more brands really trying to tap into this by adding on challenges and adventures within their events.

Travel and Leisure

Can out-of-home leisure destinations lure people away from screens? Why does travelling like a local beat being a regular tourist? And is AR a real game-changer? As part of our Expert Outlook 2017 series, we speak to three leisure experts about what the future holds for how we unwind and explore.

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