Voor Europa-Park-bezoekers die graag overnachten in de eigen tent, caravan of camper beschikt de camping van het park over zo’n 300 staanplaatsen. Met het online reserveringssysteem is iedere gast vooraf verzekerd van een eigen gemarkeerde plek. Nieuw is de start van een busverbinding van de camping naar waterpark Rulantica.

We live in turbulent times. Awareness of the threats of war, pandemics, and economic recessions make reconsiderations urgent, also within our leisure field. Which structures are resistant under which conditions? What is important or valuable? The outbreak of the global pandemic and the resulting restrictions on leisure pursuits exposed the impact of our industry on the functioning of society. The lack of the previously seemingly taken-for-granted interpersonal interaction, relaxation, inspiration and entertainment has made impacts whose full implications are yet to be seen. Despite that, the leisure sector remained remarkably quiet for a long time. Beyond practical solutions and the occasional cry for help for the sector’s survival, we took the inspirational leader role only to a limited extent. Perhaps overwhelmed by the visibility of this responsibility. Perhaps we did not sufficiently feel the urgency to claim our role in society. A missed opportunity to take a step forward to expand the full potential of leisure for social, environmental and economic impact. The Future of Leisure largely depends on the role leisure manages to claim in the vital issues facing society. Are we sufficiently capable of demanding the role as a testing ground and as connector between the lifeworld and systems world?

Milan Meyberg was one of the keynote speakers at the Future of Leisure conference. The Uncover editors sat down with him to discuss his experience with and vision for shaping a more sustainable and future-proof world.

As the Scenario Planner at VisitScotland in 2004 (Yeoman & McMahon-Beattie, 2005), I facilitated a team to model and construct a set of scenarios which replicated the present COVID-19 pandemic reality. In the paper by Page et al. (2006) A case study of best practice - Visit Scotland's prepared response to an influenza pandemic, we predicted a global pandemic which meant international aviation coming to a halt for two to three years, lockdowns and social distancing. When combined, these effects would have a severe impact on Scottish tourism. However, very few believed us at the time and many people treated the scenarios with a degree of scepticism, as if they were from a science fiction film. Nearly twenty years later that science fiction scenario came true and COVID-19 was a reality. This is why science fiction and skepticism are important to me.

Three experts, Menno Stokman, Stefan Hartman and Tony Blackshaw reflect on the future of leisure in big world challenges.

In 2023 organiseerden de Nederlandse Leisure-opleidingen de conference 'The Future of Leisure. Illustrator, DJ and student Zena-Rae Borst van de Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam maakte een visueel verslag van de conferentie.

In 2023 organiseerden de Nederlandse Leisure-opleidingen de conference 'The Future of Leisure. Illustrator, DJ and student Zena-Rae Borst van de Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam maakte een visueel verslag van de conferentie.

It was already predicted in the middle of the 20th century; we are moving towards a Leisure Society. Technological innovation ensured that we had more time for a good conversation or a nice hobby. The trend did indeed develop as predicted, but leisure activities have also changed. We are currently experiencing a revival of the Leisure Society, now powered by robotics and machine learning. Artificial Intelligence is even taking over knowledge-intensive jobs. As human beings, we end up on the sidelines of the labour market. Who will have a job and who will not? And shouldn't we introduce a Basic Income so that we can all continue to participate in this leisure economy? In the meantime, we are having a great time with new gadgets and tech-driven services and experiences. 

This article was written by AI, or artificial intelligence, a technology that is rapidly transforming the world we live in. As an AI language model, I have been programmed to understand and analyze vast amounts of data, and to use this knowledge to generate written content that is informative, engaging, and thought-provoking. In this article, I will explore the future of leisure and how AI is likely to shape and transform this important aspect of our lives.