Active Recreation in an Active Economy

Active recreation is defined as activities engaged in for the purpose of relaxation, health and wellbeing, or enjoyment with the primary activity requiring physical exertion. They are often spontaneous in nature and participant-led, with a low level of organization and limited structure. Active recreation has significant links to health and wellbeing and provides its greatest value when it is shared with all citizens.

Active Tourism in the Active Economy

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council's (WTTC) most recent reports, one in every ten jobs (an estimated 330 million) is influenced if not directly supported by travel and tourism-related activity, making it one of the world's largest economic sectors. Whilst the boundaries that separate adventure tourism from active/sport tourism are blurred, the subject is certainly not lacking in terms of evidence-based definitions, conceptual frameworks, or typologies. This chapter offers a critical overview of the existing body of knowledge that relates to the emergence of a global active and/or adventure-based tourism economy. The authors complement their review of the literature with a case study looking at the ‘home of adventure', Queenstown, New Zealand.

A New Lens

In the past 20 years, the creative economy has emerged as a framework to explore creativity as an ecosystem with direct and indirect value. The creative economy lens does not view fields such as education, arts, culture, and innovation as isolated. Rather, by adopting an ecosystem view, the creative economy maps the interdependence of these fields as unique drivers of direct and indirect economic outputs. In this book, the authors identify an active ecosystem, incorporating all organizations who participate in, or contribute to, improving individual or community well-being through the development and delivery of sport and active recreational experiences. By viewing them as part of a complex active ecosystem, the authors believe policymakers and practitioners are better positioned to shape ecosystem-level opportunities and maximize its impact on the community.

The Sport Gaming Nexus

Historically, sports gaming has existed primarily in brick-and-mortar venues such as casinos. This was the case until the internet created the conditions for a dramatic change in the supply of gaming opportunities in live sports. In 2018, a United States Supreme Court ruling legalized sports gaming, which triggered the tabling of similar legislation in Canada. This chapter examines how stakeholders form a network of relationships referred to as the sports gaming nexus. The authors argue that sports gaming presents a paradox – sports gaming will increase revenues and fan engagement for many actors within the sports culture and economy, but will the benefits outweigh potential negative consequences? This question is examined from the active economy, network system perspective. This chapter is informed by current debates in more mature gaming markets such as the United Kingdom and France.

Stakeholders in the Active Economy

This chapter builds upon previous discussions conceptualizing the active economy by focusing on one of its key features: the stakeholders. In particular, the authors seek to answer three fundamental questions regarding how to conceptualise active economies including: (1) What stakeholders comprise an active economy? (2) How can we identify stakeholders within an active economy? (3) How do these stakeholders interact in order to produce systems of value? In response to these questions, they provide an overview of the stakeholder saliency literature and discuss how it may be possible to conceptualize stakeholders within the active economy by outlining a topology and a conceptual framework for the identification and classification of stakeholders. Finally, they illustrate how this conceptual framework can be used to identify stakeholders within global, national, and regional active economies and through a case study of Strava Inc.

Design and Infrastructure in an Active Economy

This chapter provides a high-level overview of the elements that make up the active economy infrastructure. This includes a focus on urban design, master planning, and a review of facility types. Further discussion involves types of play that occur within various infrastructure, with a particular focus on parks. Finally, the operation of infrastructure is reviewed along with the trends that are impacting the design of active infrastructure.

Health and Wellness in an Active Economy

There are two approaches to health and wellness that are explored throughout this chapter. The first is a socio-ecological response, where the recreation system has been focused on changing individual behaviour at the programmatic level. There is the realization that if programs were the single answer, then all the world's problems would be solved by now. What is needed is a much larger systemic response. The second approach relates to the co-creation of authentic and customized health and wellness solutions. Typically, the notion of health and wellness is viewed through the lens of the “expert” and a prescription model that is grounded in “the expert knows what is best for you.” The emerging model is one where the citizen is at the centre of the solution process. People desire the ability to feel more in control and make informed decisions about their health for themselves and their families. In this chapter, the authors explore this topic by reviewing a Canadian health and wellness action study.

Active Technology and Accessories

Active technology (i.e. ‘wearables' and accompanying health tracking apps) is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Nearly one in every 10 people worldwide generates physiological and biomechanical data from wearable devices every day. This data allows users to evaluate their performance over time, to share with friends, to find like-minded training partners and share this data with their primary healthcare providers. Population-based research related to health, wellness, and physical activity is now feasible as a result of data generated from wearables. This chapter will highlight the major current trends and future applications for wearable devices from a user and research-based perspective across the active economy. The authors aim to highlight the practical and clinical utility of wearables to monitor training, fatigue, and performance on the athletic field, the workplace, and the clinical environments. The goal is to improve health, mobility, and quality of life of the end-user.

Mapping the Active Economy to Community Value

This chapter will deconstruct the value chain located within the active economy. This value chain includes community input resources (including human, economic, social/structural, built, and natural resources) which generate activities and outputs. The value of the active economy is defined by its impact on a community's economic, human, social, and environmental wellbeing. Herein, the literature associated with the impact of the active economy on the dimensions of community wellbeing is examined.

Media and Content in an Active Economy

A vibrant active economy is dependent upon many factors to thrive and be successful. At the very core of this, is centralized communication—and links to myriad communication networks and tools—to keep the community engaged. Media and content, from traditional to digital communication, and its content through other outlets are key when engaging individual citizens and key stakeholders to share vital information as well as provide a means of storytelling. And, as media has been democratized by a variety of social platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.), the distinction and diversity of voices active via media and content in an active economy is significant. This chapter reviews the concepts of media and content for an active economy including an historical overview of media, digital transformation, related trends, and includes relevant case studies for discussion and critical analysis.