Recreation market is a wide market including many fields such as art activities, tourism movement, sport activities, entertainment and socialization. It would not be wrong to say that the intensity of competition was gradually increasing in this market including a good deal and different business organizations. Business organizations, willing to find constant permanent place in this market in which organizations compete intensely, need effective marketing approaches that enable them to be successful (Argan, 2007). Besides, recreation marketing has differential features because recreation products have their own features (Horner and Swarbrooke, 2005). These features of recreation marketing are below.

Recreation  products  are  not  only  physical products. However, they contain the satisfactory and positive experiences of people live by participating recreational activities. This increases the importance of human factor in marketing intangible products of recreational activities. Staff, who constitute an important dimension of human factor, play critical role in both serving quality services to customers in recreation market and the occurrence of customer satisfaction. In other words, staff is the perceived face of the business organizations (Hoffman and Bateson, 2006).

Because of construct of free time and recreation products, free time and recreation marketing handles marketing in an integrated approach. Free time and recreation  marketing  is  related   to   service   marketing, industrial marketing, tourism marketing and sport marketing. In other words, free time and recreation marketing can be evaluated as an electric version of many marketing practice (Akyıldız, 2010).

It is not possible to stock recreational products. Therefore, difficulties in capacity can arise in recreation and recreation firm. It is not possible to stock services when demand starts to decrease, and to use stocks when demand starts to increase (Özel et al., 2013).

Another feature making recreation marketing important is that recreation activities are not obligatory; that is to say, people can head for these activities without being under any pressure (Özgören, 2007).

Entertainment Marketing; as it is the same in many fields, when entertainment marketing is defined, it is possible to say modern marketing approach becomes effective. The features of modern marketing definition can be found in the definition and content of entertainment marketing.

This is quite natural because it is not possible to distinguish entertainment marketing from general marketing practice. Even entertainment marketing has its own specific features; generally necessity of practicing modern marketing brings the success. Generally, entertainment marketing can be defined as implementation of marketing principles to entertainment products or the other products served with entertainment (Argan, 2007).

In entertainment marketing 4 C: Product, price, distribution, place, distribution and promotion in traditional marketing constitute the marketing mix components. The marketing mix components can be referred as approach of business organization. There is 4C approach in traditional marketing. 4C consists of customer value, convenience, cost and communication. A similar approach is valid for entertainment marketing. There are important headings referred by 4C in entertainment marketing. These are content, conduit, consumption and con-vergence (Lieberman and Esgate, 2002).

Purpose of the study

The desires of young consumers, especially university students, are increasing each passing day and they are looking for how to experience entertainment with higher quality. While marketers serve their products, they should commercialize their product in the frame of needs and satisfaction of new generation.

It is an incontrovertible fact that marketing under-standing has changed with the fast development and differentiation of technology and cyber world. Young consumers, especially university students, take the most important part in this change. Research has shown that people choose to enjoy in free-time activities. The aim of this study is to examine participation of university students in recreational entertainment marketing activities.

Research questions and hypotheses

Primary intent of this research was to investigate participation of university students in recreational entertainment marketing activities. Question of research was “are recreational entertainment activities important for university students? To this end, the following two hypotheses have been formulated and tested.

H_1: There is no statically significant difference participating recreational entertainment activities between male and female students.

H_2: There is no statically significant difference participating recreational entertainment activities between ages.

This section presents detailed information on this study’s research model, data collection techniques and analysis of collected data.

Research model

It was a research conducted with descriptive research model. In this study, in order to determine participation of university student in recreative entertainment marketing activities in Marmara University, theoretical information was included by reviewing the related literature, and questionnaire was used.

Population and sample

The survey population consisted of university students in Marmara University and sample consisted of 122 females (45.9%) and 150 (55.1%) males; totally 272 students, (172 students in school of physical education and sport, 100 students in faculty of political sciences) participated in the study.  Mean of students’ ages was generally 17-24. These age categories were selected because they are required to participate in recreational entertainment activities. Random sampling method was used for selecting the sample. The random sampling is a method in which all members of group have an equal and independent chance of being selected (Arlı and Nazik, 2004).

Data collection tool

Survey method was used to collect data. Questionnaire form (recreation and entertainment preference scale) was constituted by using the research of Korkmaz (2013). The validity and reliability analysis were done again before applying the questionnaire. The survey consisted of 4 sub-dimensions after factor analyses which were; recreational entertainment, place, environment and technology. Factor analysis was applied to test factor structure of the Questionnaire. Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett test were used to find out the adequacy of the sample (Table 1). Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency analysis was used to find out the reliability (Table 1).

 

 

 

 

Factor analysis cannot be suitable for all data. Suitability of data can be tested by using KMO and Bartlett tests. Analysis showed that KMO value was found as 0.757 and Bartlett value was found as 284.606, and significant level was 0.000. It can be said that these   findings  prove  that  sample size  and  correlation  between items are suitable. Cronbach’s alpha was found as 0.849 (Table 2).

 

 

 

 

The internal consistency value of sub-dimensions tested in terms of validity and reliability was found as for recreational entertainment 0.845, place 0.786, environment 0.689, and technology 0.796 (Table 3)

 

 

 

 

Confirmatory factor analysis showed that Recreation and Entertainment Preference Questionnaire is suitable for the sample group of this study. Modification indices reported perfect fit (Figure 1).

 

 

 

 

Data analysis

The data were analyzed by statistical package for social science (SPSS) Windows 22.0 software.  The internal consistency value of sub-dimensions tested in terms of validity and reliability was found to be for recreational entertainment 0.845, place 0.786, environment 0.689, and technology 0.796. KMO and Bartlett test, frequency and percentage of the data were calculated; independent t test and one-way ANOVA test were used for data analysis. Significant level was accepted as p<0.05 in statistical analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied by using AMOS.

122 females (45.9 %) and 150 (55.1 %) males, totally 272 students (172 students in school of physical education and sport, 100 students in faculty of political sciences) participated in the study. The ages ranged between 17 to 21 (n=170), 22-26 (n=70) and over 26 (n=32), and the frequency was found as 62.5, 25.7 and 11.8%, respectively (Table 4).

 

 

 

 

Differences between genders in terms of recreation and entertainment preferences are displayed in Table 5. Significant differences were found between male and female students in terms of place (t=2.37, p<0.05) and recreational entertainment (t=2.94, p<0.01). Male students had higher mean than females in terms of these sub-dimensions (Place: t(263.886)=2,374; p=0.018, μ_male = 9.008, sd= 1.86, μ_female = 8.485, sd= 1.76 and Recreational Entertainment: t(296,216)=2,940; p=0.004, μ_male = 10.513, sd= 2.96, μ_female = 10.49, sd= 2.70). No significant differences are found between genders in terms of technology and environment.

 

 

 

 

No significant differences have been found between age  groups  in  terms  of  recreation   and   entertainment preferences. The confidence interval was 95% (Tables 5 and 6).

 

 

122 female (45.9 %) and 150 (55.1 %) male, totally 272 students, (172 students in School of physical education and sport, 100 students in Faculty of political sciences) participated in the study. Significant differences were found between male and female students in terms of place (t=2.37, p<0.05) and recreational entertainment (p<0.01). Male students have reported higher mean than females   in   terms   of   these   sub-dimensions    (Place: t(263.886)=2.374; p=0.018, μ_male = 9.008, sd= 1.86, μ_female = 8.485, sd= 1.76 ve Recreational Entertainment: t(296.216)=2.940; p=0.004, μ_male = 10.513, sd= 2.96, μ_female = 10.49, sd= 2.70). No significant differences have been found between genders in terms of technology and environment. The reason that no difference was found between ages can be interpreted that students were at close age to each other.

Today, it is not enough to only participate in recreational activities. People are willing to enjoy, spend good time and leave with a complete satisfaction from activities they involve. Recreational activity organizers should arrange activities by considering entertainment factor. In 2013, the  study  by  Hawaii  Tourism  Firm  has revealed that visitors from USA, Japan, Canada and Europe prefer entertainment activities in their free time. In the study titled entertainment marketing and experimental consumption, Hackley and Tiwsakul (2006) have stated that new theoretical conceptualizations have been required. Barn (2005) suggested that problems could arise unless entertainment activities were integrated into entertainment sector. Selwakumar and Vikkraman (2012) have concluded that male and female participants have different recreational entertainment preferences and these results support our findings.  In the same study, it was found that participants preferred sport activities as recreational entertainment activities. Furthermore, recreational entertainment activities contain many activities, so activities involving sport provide satisfaction for free time and also people participating these activities become fit because they do exercise. WHO emphasizes that not only being physically fit, but also mental and social well-being while well-being is defined. Recreational entertainment activities provide people complete satisfaction while providing the opportunity to become physically, mentally and socially well.

Selvakumar and Vikkarman (2012) found difference between genders in terms of using technology to participate in recreational entertainment activities. Also, it was stated that socialization was an important factor to participate in recreational entertainment activities.

Recently, it can be seen that people are getting alone by addicting a mobile and computer although social media usage has increased with the development of technology. In the study in which the effects of social media marketing on sport activities are examined, Rayat et al. (2015) found that social media instruments had an important function to participate in recreational activities in campus. Goksel and Seraslan (2015) found similar results in the study of social media usage of clubs. This function stems  from  getting  information  of  activities  by students, increment of their interest and awareness.

Recreational entertainment activities have a critical place in free time activities. These free times of participants should be organized systematically and make people to use it very well. In the study titled “the use of leisure time: activities of serious leisure and casual leisure” Arslan (2012) emphasized that not only private sector establishment but also government institutions should contribute these systematical free time activities. In the study titled, The administered public recreation marketing concept, Novatorov (2015) suggested that recreational activity practitioners should provide benefit for participant or customer by staying in ethical value perspective. Environment is very important to participate in recreational activities. Lu et al. (2016) stated that “international students think participating in leisure travel may reduce the pressure they receive from the unfamiliar environment”. Entertainment activities are stunning and cheap for university student, especially, when combined with sports and entertainment activities (Larkin, 2015; Lee et al., 2013).

This study can be applied in different field at Marmara University and Turkey to extent the sample group. This study can be applied to public and opinions about their participation in recreational entertainment marketing can be collected. Recreational entertainments activities can be developed with government support and make local community to be able to benefit from these activities. Monthly income can be added in next studies.

The author has not declared any conflict of interest.