Economic Determinants Of Taking Up Recreational And Tourist Activity In The Single People’S Leisure Time

In Europe 160 million people live without a partner. Every second Finn and Irishman, every third American and every fourth Swede live without their better halves (www.travelplanet.pl). Lower rates are only in low-developed countries, especially Muslim ones. Each year in every European country the number of people living alone is growing and this trend seems to have no limit. The single people from conscious choice are uniting with the singles from necessity (the classic ones). This is one of the examples of a demographic factor that influences the development of the modern tourism and recreation. The growth of one-person households allows us to establish a thesis that the members of such a kind of households have a lot of freedom in taking decisions concerning organization of their spare time. Moreover, taking into account their household's available income – which is disposable to only one person and allotted to meet basic needs and consumption of a higher order, investments, savings – it should be supposed that the single people will become an attractive target group to recreation and tourist line of business, and on the market special offers fulfilling specific needs of this segment of the tourists and the participants of recreational activities, that is in both motor recreation and the cultural one. Widely understood globalization and dynamic socio-economic changes, politics, technological progress and the pace of introducing innovations in the leisure industry pose challenges for firms that provide recreational and tourism services, including for the unmarried part of society. This article aims to present impact of the economic factor as a determinant of recreational and tourist activity of the singles, on example of some research carried out in Poland (Greater Poland Voivodeship).