Recreation Business: Strategies for Success is a conversation about leisure-based businesses for classroom and online courses. From the point of view of a senior scholar who has studied leisure and its social contexts for 5 decades, Kelly begins by introducing the scope and variety of recreation businesses and discusses major issues in the field.

Then he turns toward social and behavioral science research about recreation and leisure that has been developed since 1970, answering the question, how does this research guide and direct the beginning and operation of a recreation business? Throughout the book, Kelly encourages dialogue and learning through questions, cases, research ideas, debates, online resources, and more.

“The beginning is that ‘leisure is different.’  The focus is on what a recreation business sells or rents: an experience.  The crucial element is quality.  And decades of study have yielded a lot of insight into how leisure experiences can be raised to a level that will attract and retain clients.”

–John R. (Jack) Kelly