Consumers are cutting back on how they spend their leisure pound. If the industry is to survive, it must adapt to its changing customers, writes Beth Holmes.

The leisure industry has had its share of negative headlines recently, with emotive news reports showing families, who scraped together their last few pounds to escape the foul weather and failing economy, stranded abroad because their tour operator, XL, had gone bust overnight. So much for that sunny fillip.

Experts, though, do not believe that abandoned passengers and defunct operators are an ominous sign the sector is in meltdown.