Outdoor leisure activities have seen a surprising rise in demand post covid with a local activities centre seeing a “massive” uptake in bookings with people trying to make up for the year lost during the pandemic.
Group activities like go karting, mini golf, bowling and many more have seen a rise in popularity in the 18 months since restrictions ended having been closed for over a year.
Ancaster Leisure is the largest outdoor activity centre in the midlands. The activities available include karting, paintball, airsoft, laser tag. archery and bowling.
The diversity of the activities and a year of not being open led to customers flooding back as soon as the centre reopened.
Hayley Latham, secretary at Ancaster Leisure, said: “Up take has been massive, as soon as we were allowed to open the customers returned, I think it helped with the fact people did not go on holiday and so had extra cash to spend on activities.”
“We have done so well customer wise since reopening. I feel people have realised they need to do more in their free time which has helped our business grow.”
The centre like many businesses adapted to pandemic and used the year of no customers to clean and improve their facilities whilst keeping revenue ticking over by selling airsoft guns. 
Go karting enthusiast Luke Burnage has not been surprised by the popularity. He said: “it’s a sport that can only be done at a centre and is enjoyable for all ages, over the last year I have gone more than ever to make up for the time I lost during covid.”
The popularity surge in group activities has led to more businesses opening. In December last year a virtual golf and footgolf place called Virtually Golf opened on the Brayford Wharf, and in September this year minigolf and bar place Gloryholes opened on Lincoln’s high street
It seems despite the gloom and doom, the pandemic may have had some positive impacts, with people spending more social time with their friends and family whether it’s a day out or a quick game of pool or darts.
