Greg's Assignment 3

The Shedd Aquarium is a tourism agency that attributes a big part to the leisure service delivery system. The goal of this agency is to provide leisure to the American society and in a different form. It shows that there are other ways to have leisure other than working out, playing games, or playing a sport as some of the other agencies provide (such as the ARC, LA Fitness, and others). That’s what’s great about this whole leisure service delivery system. There are a variety of agencies that pertains to a variety of personalities and preferences for leisure. That’s the beauty of it all! Besides what would leisure be if everything was the same and agencies all had the same definition for leisure? It’ll be pretty boring huh.
What makes the Shedd Aquarium such a great choice for leisure is that it is aimed to serve all individuals and age groups. And that’s one of its strengths, which I will further discuss a little later. Every agency needs to be funded somehow to keep it up and running. Similar to some of the other agencies and organizations such as LA Fitness, Stephen’s Service Organization: Pancakes for Poverty, and others, the Shedd Aquarium gets its funds from a combination of admission charges, fundraisers, and concession and gift sales.
The key element that sets this agency apart from others is that it ties the beauty of nature in with leisure. It gives people the best of both worlds; leisure and the appreciation of nature. As I said before one of the strengths of this agency is that it serves all age groups opposed to fitness and/or sport based agencies like LA Fitness or the ARC or the Champaign Park District. This allows different groups such as families or friends to go out to enjoy leisure together. When it comes to measuring weakness, I can’t really think of any because this agency does its part in the leisure service delivery system and does it well. If I had to pick one I would say it’s not having more Shedd Aquariums! Overall, I would say that this organization fulfills its purpose and goals. My reasons for this are evident throughout this whole blog. In addition, it has more than 2 million visitors a year and is one of Chicago’s top attractions as well as the most visited aquarium. That has to count for something right?! I just wanted to end by saying I really enjoyed this class and blog assignment.