MUCH is being said these days about leisure. Shortened workdays and lengthened vacation periods appear to be the outlook for most Americans. Sociologists wonder about the impact of leisure on our society, and psychologists fret over how the individual will fare as work becomes less of his total life experience. In other words, behavorial scientists are beginning to recognize leisure as a field worthy of serious study.
Leisure, when accompanied by appreciable amounts of discretionary income, furnishes businessmen with exciting marketing opportunities. Those firms in tune with the leisure-time needs and desires of the public should profit handsomely in the new milieu. Increased sales and soaring profits should be the rewards for offering the right kinds of leisure "product." Moreover, these firms will contribute materially to full employment by providing jobs for the disadvantaged and those who lose their jobs to automation. Depressed regions will be revitalized when converted into recreational areas. Oddly enough, little research and study has been devoted to the marketing implications of increased leisure; no theory or body of technique has been developed.
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