Attractions, adventure tourism and recreation offer a variety of employment opportunities within the tourism sector.
In fact, adventure tourism and recreation is growing fast thanks to changing travel and tourism trends. Driving the growth is today’s active travel consumers, who are eager to authentically experience nature and wilderness as part of their holiday plans.
Another key component of this industry group is attractions, which offer visitors a chance to explore the sights, facilities and wonders of their destination. Attractions generally include historic sites, heritage homes, museums, halls of fame, art galleries, botanical gardens, aquariums, zoos, water parks, amusement parks, casinos and cultural attractions.
A British Columbia Perspective:
- In the area of adventure tourism and recreation, anticipated labour demand by 2015 is 13,100 workers.
- In the area of attractions, projected labour demand by 2015 is 8,000 new workers.
The Recreation and Entertainment industry includes a myriad of activities that range from bird watching to salmon fishing, horseback riding to white water rafting, golfing to wilderness trekking, and educational visits to entertaining stops. And regardless of size, these venues need people to work in gift shops and restaurants, as well as help maintain the facilities, manage the operations and promote the attractions.
Generally, the Recreation and Entertainment industry is one of the chief motivators in influencing travelers to a destination – whether they happen to be interested in cultural museums, heritage sites or experiencing the rugged outdoors, and virtually anything in between. Since these activities require travelers to have transportation, accommodation and food and beverage services as part of their overall visit, other tourism industry groups also benefit immensely.
This industry offers a wide variety of employment opportunities, ranging from seasonal part-time to permanent full-time positions. More than 80 different occupations are available within Recreation and Entertainment services.
