Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The main aim of the United Kingdom Day Visits Survey, the Great Britain Day Visits Survey (GBDVS), and latterly the England Leisure Visits Survey (ELVS), is to measure the extent of participation in day visits, and to estimate the scale and value of visits taken. In particular the principal investigators are interested in the extent of participation in different kinds of day trips, how frequently particular types of trip are undertaken, and associated expenditure. The survey also seeks to provide information on a number of other trip details, such as activities undertaken, areas visited, time spent at the main destination, modes of transport, distance travelled, number of people involved and the trip party composition. Respondents to the survey are generally asked to recall trips taken within the past two weeks.
England Leisure Visits Survey, 2005 (ELVS): In 2005, a consortium of government departments and agencies with an interest in recreation and tourism, led by the then Countryside Agency (see below), commissioned Research International to conduct the ELVS 2005 survey. This survey focused specifically on leisure trips made to England by English respondents, as opposed to the wider Great Britain/United Kingdom scope of the previous surveys, but still effectively forms the fifth study in the GBDVS series. The main aims of ELVS 2005 were to measure the extent of participation in leisure visits in England by the adult population (aged 16 and over), and estimate the total number of leisure visits and their economic value. In addition, two new secondary objectives of ELVS were to provide additional information about visits to National Parks, and information about the use of new open access land. Further information about the survey and links to publications may be found on the Natural England ELVS web pages. On 2 October 2006, English Nature, the landscape, access and recreation elements of the Countryside Agency, and the environmental land management functions of the Rural Development Service, were joined together to form Natural England.
Main Topics:
The questionnaire was divided into five main sections. Some of the content of the questionnaire had been developed and used in the previous GBDVS surveys, but specific questions were developed for ELVS. Section 1 of the questionnaire covered leisure trips taken the previous week, including the main activity and other activities undertaken on the leisure trip. Section 2 covered detailed information about one of the trips identified in the trip diary in Section 1, selected at random. Section 3 was asked of respondents who had visited a National Park or open access land in their selected trip. Section 4 covered leisure trips taken in the past year, and Section 5 covered demographic characteristics of the respondent and their household. For further details, see documentation.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Telephone interview
