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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

The continuing stratification of location-based entertainment & museums

For many years, we have been reporting on the growing socioeconomic stratification of spending on community location-based entertainment (LBE); a larger and larger share of spending comes from higher socioeconomic households. In a sense, you might call this the gentrification of LBEs. Our last analysis of LBE spending was through 2019. We now have 2023 data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey that shows that the trend is continuing post-pandemic.

Pre-Covid, households with a bachelor's or higher degree accounted for 63% of all spending on admissions and fees to community LBEs (excluding cinemas) and museums. That share has grown to 74% in 2023.

For all location-based entertainment and arts, both in the local community and on trips, the share by households with a bachelor's or higher degree has grown to 80% of admissions and fees, up from 71% pre-Covid 2019. Households with a bachelor's or higher degree were 48% of all households in 2023; less than half of all households account for 80% of such spending.

Takeaway

The target market for location-based entertainment continues to become more gentrified. High inflation during the past few years is probably a cause of the accelerated gentrification. Lower socioeconomic households struggle the most due to higher living costs, forcing them to reduce or eliminate any discretionary visits to LBEs. LBE operators need to recognize the target market they need to cater to and design every aspect of their business to attract and satisfy that target market - the highly educated, higher socioeconomic households.

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