Springer Science and Business Media LLC

The changing cultural paradigms in Latin America have influenced a variety of leisure activities and significant implications for development of leisure services. Leisure-spending behaviour prompts sequential relationship among customers intending to perform family celebrations in a different environment and gaining higher satisfaction through the customised services, recreational attractions and brand value. This study focuses on the qualitative dimensions associated with the sales people and managerial efforts made to augment the outcome performance in sales with reference to the time sharing proposals at leisure facility centres in Mexico. The leisure facility centres are used by individual and institutional customers for organising leisure events, parties and family gatherings. The study reveals that the leisure facility centre developer firms function with team sales strategy and the performance of sale teams is linked with their contributions to the profit of the firm.

The development of land registration, coupled with the availability to the public of as much information as possible about all property interests, has led to the first major piece of legislation in this field for nearly 80 years. It is also a prelude to e-conveyancing. 13 October 2003 was D-Day and all those involved in property need to be aware. Many of the provisions are procedural and primarily of concern to the professional, but others affect the client directly. This paper seeks to summarise the most important changes, the background to them and the possible implications.

When a ‘blue chip’ tenant disposes of their leasehold interest, the landlord will invariably have the upper hand if another operator of similar covenant strength is not available to replace them; consequently, the outgoing tenant can find themselves being held to ransom and their leasehold trading asset becoming a financial liability. The impact on the freeholder's investment value of the blue-chip tenant vacating can be in the region of 1–4 times annual rent and not surprisingly landlords will wish to avoid their tenant leaving. This paper looks at the problems that can arise from the writer's practical experience of disposing of leases held by tenants of good covenant strength to tenants of weaker financial standing. Focus is given to the restaurant sector, a rapidly growing and dynamic market where leasehold property, due to reasons of supply and lower cost of entry (than freehold), is the preferred choice of tenure and where the failure rate of new restaurants is extremely high. The latter combined with the impact on the landlord's investment value are good reasons for the landlord to be difficult with the tenant's proposal to assign.

Continuing shifts in the structure and direction of leisure operator markets are causing considerable turbulence in the occupational demand for leisure property. It is argued here that ‘leisure’ is not one easy-to-read sector but comprises several specialised markets. The situation is made even more difficult for property investors by the constantly changing corporate landscape in leisure, as operators juggle their portfolios in order to meet City expectations for larger and more focused companies. Equally, though, the fast-moving, fashion-driven nature of leisure continues to create demand for new space and formats. The paper reviews current trends in key occupier markets and discusses emerging evidence on leisure rental growth in the light of these trends.

This paper presents a case study of Sheffield city centre's masterplan, focusing on the Heart of the City civic core. Sheffield was one of the first city councils to use culture as a basis for economic regeneration. The literature argues that while early regeneration was economically driven, under New Labour cultural planning has become more focused on creating inclusive spaces. The new developments in Sheffield associated with the masterplan have been in two stages. The first created award winning public cultural spaces, including the Millennium Galleries and Winter Garden. The second phase has led to private, commercial developments, which this paper argues have impacted negatively on the public spaces. The public spaces do not meet the inclusive aspirations of either Sheffield's local strategic partnership or cultural policy. The Sheffield case, however, demonstrates how all regeneration is located within local economic realities. As a secondary city within its region, in terms of office rents, there is a limit to what the public sector in Sheffield can demand from the private sector. The masterplan's developments are ongoing and there is evidence that as office rentals are increasing the public sector could exert more power in the future.

This paper discusses the inherent conflict of interest between owners and operators under hotel management agreements and describes the most important business and legal issues that have to be observed from an owner's and an operator's perspective, respectively, when negotiating a hotel management agreement. At the same time, the paper gives an overview of the most significant contractual issues that should be covered in all hotel management agreements. The author concludes that only a balanced contract will allow both parties to achieve their business goals over time, and that the best approach to a balanced contractual basis is a mutual understanding by the parties of each other's main concerns.

The paper provides an update on how the government's thinking has evolved on the REIT model since it first sought consultation in March 2004. An explanation of the current requirements for REIT status is provided, together with a commentary on some aspects which still need to be resolved. Consideration is then given to the possibilities for investing in hotels, including reference to models in other tax jurisdictions. Readers will gain an insight into how REITs could be developed to facilitate investment in UK hotels where further changes are required to create an effective framework.