Changing values lead to shifts in the leisure budget

"This year, we'd rather afford a longer holiday and put the planned car purchase on hold - as long as we don't know what's going to happen with the catalytic converter." Many people think like this couple in a Hamburg travel agency: 56 per cent of Germans are planning a "holiday fund" this year: 40 per cent want to spend just as much and 16 per cent "rather more money" than last year. According to a new representative survey of 2,000 people aged 14 and over across Germany conducted by the BAT Leisure Research Institute, it is mainly 20 to 29-year-olds, senior managers and senior civil servants (30 %) who intend to spend more money on their holidays this year.

According to the Hamburg leisure researchers, the economic and income trends of recent years are casting a visible shadow on the holiday market: while 63 per cent of those in employment can and want to spend as much or even more on holidays this year, this is only the case for 42 per cent of those not in employment and 20 per cent of the unemployed. It is not only at work, but also in their leisure time that the employed and unemployed take different paths. The BAT survey shows that every second German citizen (49 %) plans to spend as much or more money on short trips and weekend excursions in addition to holidays than in the previous year 1984.

An important item of expenditure in the leisure budget is the use of the car for leisure purposes. There is noticeable restraint here: Only 7 per cent intend to spend more money on private car journeys in 1985 and 6 per cent on the purchase of a car than in 1984. The ongoing debate about the introduction of catalytic converters and unleaded petrol has certainly contributed to the reluctance to spend. Going on holiday has overtaken the car as a leisure activity. Quite a few people simply put buying a car on the back burner and book their next holiday trip.

It is unmistakable: "Holidays and travel have become an indispensable part of quality of life," says Prof. Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the BAT Leisure Research Institute, "for which there is practically no market saturation - as long as there is enough money. However, if money becomes scarce, there will inevitably be shifts in the leisure budget. Experiences aimed at enjoying life (e.g. holidays, sports, games or socialising) tend to be valued more highly than new purchases of material goods (e.g. cars, televisions, stereos). Against the backdrop of changing values and saturated markets, the consumer goods industry will have to rethink the experiential environment of its products and take it more into account. The car, for example, will be more of a leisure vehicle than a means of transport in the future."