UK Amusement and Recreation Insolvency Statistics

There were 50 amusement and recreation insolvencies between January and June 2026, against 60 in the same six months of 2025, a fall of 16.7%. Arts, entertainment and recreation as a whole rose 2.3% over the same months.

This trade is moving in the opposite direction from the section it sits in. These are Company Debt calculations from Insolvency Service Table A1b data.

The rolling 12-month figure shows a gentler version of the same pull-back: 113 cases for the year to June 2026 against 117 for the year to June 2025, down 3.4%, against a 7.6% rise for the section overall.

After three consecutive years of increases to a 2025 peak, this is the clearest sign yet that the rise has paused.

Every other trade in arts, entertainment and recreation covered on this site rose in the first six months of 2026. Creative, arts and entertainment rose 17.2%. Sports clubs and facilities rose 6.7%. The section overall rose 2.3%.

Amusement and recreation activities is the exception, falling 16.7% over the same months.

That makes it an unusual page in this series: most pages here describe a trade rising in line with, or faster than, a struggling section. This one describes a trade easing after its own sharpest run of increases, even as its neighbours continue to climb.

Whether this is the start of a genuine correction or a pause in a longer rise will only be clear over the next few monthly releases. On the numbers so far, though, amusement and recreation is not part of the wider section’s current upward pressure.

Amusement and recreation insolvencies rose steadily before the pandemic, from 53 in 2016 to 89 by 2019. 2020 brought a fall to 76, and 2021 held close to that level at 79, reflecting how repeated closures affected indoor and seasonal attractions through the pandemic period.

2022 was, unusually for a trade on this site, a down year: 71, lower than 2021. The rise resumed from there and did not stop. 85 in 2023, 101 in 2024, 123 in 2025, three consecutive annual increases to a series peak more than a third above the pre-pandemic level.

2026 has opened below that peak pace, the first year-to-date fall since the run began. Whether this becomes a genuine turn or proves to be a single quieter year inside a longer rise is not yet clear from three years of data.

In the amusement and recreation cases we see, the business is usually seasonal by design, built to make most of its money across a few summer months and survive the rest of the year on what it banked. A single poor summer, whether from weather or from softer visitor numbers, can undo a year’s margin in a way a year-round business rarely experiences in one go.

Fixed costs do not take a winter break even when the business does. Business rates, insurance, loan repayments and a skeleton staff all continue through the off-season, so the gap between a strong and a weak season shows up directly in whether the company can fund its own quiet months.

HMRC arrears in this trade often build over a winter, deferred rather than avoided, on the assumption that the next season’s takings will catch up. That assumption is what breaks when a second weak season follows the first.

We would not start with this season’s ticket sales. We would look at how the business is funded through its off-season months, what fixed costs continue regardless of trade, how exposed it is to weather or a single poor season, and what is owed to HMRC.

An attraction or arcade with a strong core following and a genuinely fixable seasonal cash-flow problem usually has more options than a single bad summer suggests, restructured finance, renegotiated fixed costs, or support secured before the next season is put at risk by this one.

SIC group 932 covers companies whose recorded primary business is amusement and recreation activities: theme parks, amusement arcades, funfairs and similar attractions. It sits within arts, entertainment and recreation, alongside sports activities and creative, arts and entertainment activities, which are recorded separately.

This trade rose for three consecutive years to a 2025 peak before easing in the opening months of 2026, the clearest change of direction of any trade covered on this site. Even so, three years of annual data and six months of 2026 are a short run to call a confirmed trend.

These are company counts, not the number of attractions, rides or visitors affected. A single insolvent company may operate one site or several.

The figures are insolvency volumes, not a failure rate. They are not adjusted for the number of active amusement and recreation operators, so the count cannot show whether failure has become more or less likely for a given operator.

The SIC 932 figures come from Table A1b and are not seasonally adjusted. The latest month is provisional and can be revised.

None of the figures above decide whether a particular attraction is viable. What matters is narrower: how the business is funded through its off-season, what fixed costs continue regardless of trade, and what is genuinely owed to HMRC.

Plenty of amusement and recreation businesses in difficulty are otherwise sound operations carrying a weak-season cash gap or a cost step-up they have not yet priced in, and both are usually fixable if addressed early.

If you are reading this heading into a quiet season with a payment run coming and the cash is not there, the thing worth knowing is that the earlier you speak to someone, the more room there is to move: finance restructured, an HMRC Time to Pay arrangement, or a rescue procedure such as a Company Voluntary Arrangement or administration.

Once a winding-up petition is advertised, the bank account is usually frozen within days, and at that point creditors’ voluntary liquidation may be the only route still open. If you want to talk it through first, our insolvency advice for directors is the place to start.