1.4 Defining the Recreation and Leisure Industry

The Recreation and Leisure industry is often seen as a very narrow field, but the reality is just the opposite. It is as diverse and fascinating as play itself, creating a vast landscape of job opportunities. It is complex because it consists of stakeholders from a multitude of businesses and organizations. It crosses all three economic sectors: Public (government), Private (commercial/business) and Not-for-Profit (social & charitable organizations). Many other industries incorporate parts of recreation into their own industry. All of this makes it very difficult to recognize where the jobs are.

In 2015, the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) published The Framework for Recreation in Canada 2015, Pathways to Wellbeing. It was created as a guiding document for recreation providers. Defining recreation and creating common priorities for delivering services that lead to individual, community, and environmental well-being. Recreation is defined as:

The concept of leisure is culturally determined and therefore defined by the society in which it exists. In Canada, Leisure is commonly understood as what you do with your free time. Like recreation, it is a reflection of our freedom and is why recreation and leisure are cherished in Canadian society. Leisure can be structured (photography club) or unstructured (a walk in the park). In either form, it often results in creating jobs.

The 2020 Alberta Recreation and Parks Labour Market Project defined the Recreation Industry to identify labour market needs specific to Alberta. An industry is a group of organizations classified together based on their common delivery of services or goods. In this textbook, we will expand the Alberta project definition to include leisure and adapt it to a more job-oriented perspective. In other words, identifies where individuals with a post-secondary education in Recreation and Leisure Services work.