Lifestyle, Leisure and Profitable Trends
- Posted by Laura on November 28th, 2006 filed in Entertainment, Food and beverage, General, IT & Telecommunications, Tourism and travel
Opportunity: Investments on the leisure market
Increasing growth and refinement, positive trends and optimistic figures describe the Romanian leisure market: an average of 3 hours of spare time/day, 21 days of holiday per year (plus National Day, Christmas, New Year and Easter), and expenses of 3.3 billion of euros/year (estimations by Business Magazin). Food service, Home Entertainment, Tourism, Theater, Movie theaters, Sports - in this order - share turnover and profits on the leisure market.
Professionals aged 24-40, with average income and specific personal and career goals have started to follow the European model and show more attention to their spare time. Well… the tendency to work more is still in fashion, but people are increasingly aware of the importance of a healthy life and try to compensate the hours spent overtime in the office by dedicating other spare evenings to leisure activities - like eating out (restaurants, pubs, cafes, bars, clubs), cultural activities (theater, opera, movies), sports (tennis, football) and tourism. No wonder that the leisure activities industry targets them! Come to think of it, several TV channels have started to position themselves as lifestyle oriented, also - let me just mention Euforia Lifestyle TV.
“The category that affords to allocate 33% of the income to this kind of activities represents 15% of the Romanian population”, with the middle class contributing more each year. An investor can address the leisure market - whether it is a restaurant (Romanian/Asian/specialty restaurants, etc), a cafe (whether upscale or not, cafes have become a favourite meeting place), fitness club (in itself, a fast growing trend), an icecream parlour, a bowling, paintball or archery club. A more intimate or glamorous atmosphere, a nice location, a certain design or music - these can make a difference. As long as restaurants, clubs, pubs, theaters, cafes, etc are full (especially on evenings and weekends), and demand eager for new and stylish, opportunities are plenty.
Written by Laura
December 12th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Indeed - Romanians are getting more and more refined in terms of spending their spare time. What I haven’t seen in Bucharest - in the center, mostly - is an icecream parlour… I think that would work - especially for me -as an icecream lover…
January 15th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
[...] As I was mentioning in a previous post, the Romanian leisure market follows a positive trend. And no doubt, the investment opportunities are plenty. Investments in cafes, for instance. I cannot but think of the success Cafe Deko has, being the only cafe in Bucharest where comedians stand up and make the audience laugh. I tried on Thursday to make a reservation for Friday’s stand up comedy, but both the Friday and Saturday shows were sold out!!! It seems that Romanians have become huge fans of comedy, as the tickets to the plays at Teatrul de Comedie are sold out 1 week before the show. Moreover, Laptaria lui Enache was amazingly crowded when the comedy “Love lasts 3 years” was played. [...]
November 7th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
[...] I dedicated one of my first posts to the way Romanians spend their spare time and the great potential of investments on the leisure market. I have recently read an article about Center Stage - a “school” dedicated to teaching arts to kids, teenagers and adults. Their courses are not only addressed (like most of the other offers) to children and teenagers for educational purposes, but also to young people and adults who did not have the chance to put their passion into practice or who simply want to relax after work. [...]