PEOPLE’S LEISURE ACTIVITIES: A LOGISTIC MODELLING APPROACH Geoffrey N. Soutar and Maria M Ryan Edith Cowan University Abstract People’s leisure activities are of considerable interest to marketers as they are an integral part of their lifestyle. However, surprisingly little is known about leisure use. The present paper provides some insight into this area by examining leisure data obtained from a sample of consumers. Respondents were asked to indicate which of a large set of recreation alternatives (38) they used. Rasch’s (1960) logistic model was used to determine if there was a unidimensional set of options that could be used to develop a “recreation” scale and on which people and options could be placed. While not all options fitted the model, a scale was found which suggested respondents were more likely to be involved in passive activities and that active activities were less common. Introduction People’s leisure activities are of considerable interest to marketers as they are an important part of their lifestyle and, hence, play an important role in consumption decisions. The leisure industry has been identified as one of the biggest growth industries of the 1990’s, with planning in the industry becoming more difficult due to increasing demand for more choices and better facilities (Stone 1990). An example of the industry’s size is reflected in the annual sales of recreational goods and services in the United States, which exceeds $300 billion, which is more than Australia’s GNP (Cotte 1998). Both time and money are resources in the consumption of leisure. However, the assumption that improvements in workplace technology and rising incomes would lead to increase in leisure time has not eventuated for all social groups (Brown & Rowe 1998). Leisure time may in fact be shrinking, at least for some people. However, people’s leisure expenditure is still a significant percentage of disposable income (19 per cent of total household expenditure, ABS 1996). In addition, Australians’ choices of work and leisure patterns are changing, with leisure choices becoming more discerning and home based. Leisure marketers and researchers need new ways to explore the way people use their leisure time, particularly as leisure time and money are in short supply for many consumers. Clearly, an understanding of people’s recreation patterns would be an extremely useful starting point and a recent study obtained recreation use data. Rasch’s (1960) logistic model, which is discussed in Andrich (1988), provides a useful way of examining such data and its use is reported in the present paper. The next sections briefly outline Rasch’s model and the study that provided the recreation data. Later sections discuss the results obtained and their implications.