The second reality is that leisure is no longer secondary to retail. Leisure uses in many locations around the world used to sit on sites outside city centres, often due to the larger spaces required and the cheaper rents. Not anymore: leisure concepts are increasingly becoming the anchor tenants of large retail schemes, the reason why people visit a ‘place’ and spend their money, backed by a wave of investment in the sector by those who obviously have confidence in its long-term growth.
The third, and arguably the most exciting, is virtual reality (VR) with the most innovative concepts originating from Asia Pacific with backing from the likes of Alibaba and Tencent. VR tech has improved exponentially in past decade. Gone are unrealistic looking graphics and slow game play – today’s VR is seamless and (almost) indistinguishable from the real thing. This has opened up a whole new world of leisure concepts and experiences, in some cases marrying the old with the new: playing old nostalgic arcade games, but in a VR experience, for instance, or donning a head set and playing a round of golf in St Andrews with a friend when one of you is in London and the other in New York.
Also electrifying are new immersive digital experiences. In Tokyo you can attend an art gallery where your movement dictates the appearance of the art on the walls, while in Paris the Atelier des Lumières has allowed visitors to immerse themselves in giant high-definition of projections of the works of Klimt and Van Gogh, among others. These redefine the art gallery experience in a much smaller space than that traditionally required and attract a whole new demographic of visitor.
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