The Leisure Consumer 2021

In March 2021, consumer confidence saw its biggest jump in the ten-year history of the Deloitte Consumer Tracker following the announcement of a road map for lifting COVID-19 restrictions, renewed support for workers and the successful rollout of the vaccination programme.

Consumer confidence is often used as an indicator of prospects for the UK economy. Consumer expenditure represents the largest component of gross domestic product (GDP) and in recent years has been its main growth driver. As a result, how consumers spend will determine to a large degree how the UK emerges from the pandemic-induced recession and what sort of recovery we get. In the UK, 21 per cent of consumer spending is on ‘socially consumed’ services, such as meals out, holidays and other leisure activities – the areas most affected by lockdown measures. For consumers to spend on these, they need to be confident about their personal financial circumstances.

For the first time since the Deloitte Consumer Tracker survey began, net spending on discretionary items is expected both to become positive and also to exceed net spending on essential categories.

According to our data, intentions to spend on eating out in the next three months saw a 50 percentage point jump in Q1 2021 compared to Q4 2020 and a 90 percentage point increase compared to the same period in the previous year. Large increases were also seen in drinking out in cafes and pubs. Leisure activities, such as attending cultural events and going to the gym, also saw net spending climb.

While many found the new ways of socialising and spending their leisure time restrictive during the pandemic, others saw an opportunity to try out new things and do things differently.

Not surprisingly in the year since March 2020 people did one thing more than anything else − they socialised online. There was a 44 per cent net balance of consumers doing more socialising online compared to before the pandemic. While the majority of individuals will want to return to socialising in person, the possibility of staying in touch online has become more acceptable regardless of distance.

The home has also grown in importance, which is why the second highest growth activity in the past 12 months has been DIY projects, with a 24 per cent net balance of consumers doing more DIY than before the pandemic.

As people needed to find new ways of entertaining themselves at home, there was an increase in the total number of media subscription services with an 18 per cent net balance of consumers having subscribed to more entertainment services such as Netflix or Spotify.

With more time on their hands, people also reflected on their lifestyle before the pandemic. For a 17 per cent net balance of consumers, it meant making more environmentally sustainable lifestyle choices and for another 14 per cent net balance of consumers, it meant making healthier choices. Indeed, according to another recent survey by Deloitte, sustainability is now a key consideration for consumers, with 32 per cent of consumers adopting a more sustainable lifestyle.

When asked about their intended level of engagement with leisure activities in the year to March 2022 compared to the year before March 2020, a net balance of 19 per cent of consumers claim they will be making healthier lifestyle choices and a 14 per cent net balance aim to make more sustainable lifestyle choices. Throughout the pandemic, consumers were struck by two home truths: first that staying healthy is an important factor in fighting COVID-19 and second that the travel restrictions in place during the pandemic had a direct impact on improving air quality and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Consumers also plan to do more home improvement projects. According to our data, a net balance of 12 per cent of consumers expect to do more DIY projects in the year to March 2022. Respondents indicated that the reasons they wanted to take on more home improvement projects were that they enjoyed them and that they were better value.

Our survey also indicates that people are ready to return to face-to-face leisure activities. The net balances for many at-home activities were negative, meaning that on balance there are more people wanting to do fewer online leisure activities at home than those wanting to do more. These results point to a return to pre COVID-19 behaviours in the leisure sector.

To bring more clarity to the debate around which behaviours will stay beyond COVID-19 and how these will affect the leisure sector, we have developed a set of four profiles describing likely consumer behaviours, motivations and concerns.