Rise in Outdoor Activities in The UK

Over the past few years, more people have been trying to embrace healthier lifestyles by getting out into the great outdoors and keeping active, whether that’s through a gentle walk around the block, a bike ride, or more adventurous activities such as wild swimming, abseiling and kayaking.

And while the COVID-19 outbreak has disrupted so many areas of our lives, it’s actually seen an even greater increase in the number of people getting out and participating in outdoor activities, with gyms being forced to close and outdoor activities being perfect for practising social distancing.

So, what types of outdoor activities have we all been enjoying over the last six months or so?

We’ve turned to Google search data to see what types of things have seen the biggest increase in interest since the first lockdown was announced at the end of March.

THE UK’S OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES RISING IN POPULARITY THE MOST:

Rank	Outdoor Activity	Searches (November – March)	Searches (April – October)	Increase/Decrease in Popularity
1	Stand Up Paddleboarding	20,300	183,800	805%
2	Camping	391,500	2,171,000	455%
3	Wild swimming	17,600	68,100	287%
4	Mountain biking	763,500	1,854,000	143%
5	Canoeing	135,600	312,100	130%
6	Parasailing	29,600	64,900	119%
7	Angling	37,200	71,700	93%
8	Windsurfing	35,300	64,200	82%
9	Outdoor gyms	31,500	52,400	66%
10	Rafting	92,700	152,800	65%
11	Water sports	52,500	84,300	61%
12	Paragliding	98,700	157,700	60%
13	Gardening	522,000	811,500	55%
14	Hiking	89,400	133,200	49%
15	Horse riding	157,700	217,300	38%
15	Zipline	44,400	61,100	38%
17	Gliding	164,800	216,400	31%
18	Rock climbing	100,200	121,800	22%
19	Metal detecting	279,700	321,000	15%
20	Snorkelling	78,000	85,600	10%
21	Scuba diving	92,700	95,400	3%
22	Skydiving	160,700	158,800	-1%
22	Bungee jumping	73,100	72,600	-1%
22	Orienteering	32,000	31,800	-1%
25	Paintball	195,400	189,100	-3%
26	Kayaking	1,400,000	1,288,000	-8%
26	Abseiling	78,500	72,600	-8%
28	Running	460,500	362,000	-21%
29	Skiing	381,600	194,000	-49%
30	Birdwatching	106,400	33,200	-69%

As we can see, the activity that has seen the biggest increase in popularity, by some distance, was Stand Up Paddleboarding (or SUP).

As a cross between surfing, punting and canoeing, Stand Up Paddleboarding sees you take a big board out onto the water, which you stand upon and use an oar to propel yourself along with, which you can try for yourself with a short weekend break here in the Lake District.

Searches for SUP have increased by 805% in the UK in the last six months, but it’s an activity which has been gaining traction for the last couple of years.

Camping also saw something of a boom post-lockdown as people opted for a summer staycation rather than their usual holiday abroad. Searches shot up by 455% as people looked to get off the grid and escape the madness of 2020 for a while.

Another activity which has proved popular, especially here in the Lakes is wild swimming, which as you can probably guess, involves swimming outdoors in natural spaces such as rivers or lakes such as Grasmere, here on our doorstep, which saw searches increase by 287%.

However, some activities did see interest drop since the pandemic, including running, which while still one of the most popular outdoor activities, actually saw searches drop by 21%.

Now that the second lockdown has lifted, if you’re looking to get out and enjoy the great outdoors yourself in some of the most beautiful surroundings in the country, why not check availability here at the Daffodil Hotel (providing your own local restrictions allow you to do so).

METHODOLOGY

All search data was sourced from Google Ads Keyword Planner and shows the number of searches in the UK for the six months prior to lockdown (November 2019 to March 2020) compared with the six months following lockdown (April 2020 to October 2020).