Since the 1980s, the U.S. communities have had concerns regarding safe parks where children and adults can spend their leisure time. The article, therefore, responds to these concerns. Notably, planners have been advised to connect parks to a broader goal and not only create them for their sake. According to John Crompton, four strategies, which include real repositioning, associative repositioning, psychological repositioning, and competitive repositioning are key to a successful and viable future in leisure services (Crompton, 2009). According to this article, repositioning is a calculated or deliberate set of actions that are intended to change an agency’s current stand or position.
The current position of most leisure services in America is that they are non-essential, relatively discretionary, and irrelevant to elected officials and taxpayers. There is the need to reposition their stand and make them relevant. Since all the four repositioning strategies mutually complement each other, the leisure services have to look for ways to utilize them all. For instance, in real repositioning, an agency is supposed to make effective changes in the services it provides (Crompton, 2009). The extent to which the new changes will contribute to achieving the leisure services desired position should be the ultimate criterion in examining whether resources should be invested. In associative repositioning, the entertainment services should seek to enhance the trust, believability, and the credibility of its function in providing a certain benefit by gaining some of the associative organizational support. Thirdly, psychological repositioning intends to alter what stakeholders think about the position and role of the agency. Most stakeholders judge leisure services by the means they use to provide leisure rather than the ends they aspire to achieve. Primarily, this perspective ought to be changed because it affects the stakeholders’ willingness to support leisure services. Lastly, in competitive repositioning, it is important to remember that sectors such as health, education, and security are viewed as major competitors. Fundamentally, this is because there is an opportunity cost associated with investing in leisure services. Many of them have huge budgets that make leisure services negligible.
References
Crompton, J. L. (2009). Strategies for implementing repositioning of leisure services. Managing Leisure, 14(2), 87-111.
