Rural Feet Voting of Leisure Explorers

In the COVID-19 period, spatial leisure behavior, often driven by the desire to escape urban life, reflected health and environmental concerns. This study examines how pandemic-induced spatial motives and changes impacted disparities in leisure mobility, specifically urban-to-rural tourism, in Sweden. Analyzing pre-pandemic, during pandemic, and post-pandemic periods, using anonymized mobile phone and socioeconomic data, the paper explores urban–rural leisure mobility variations. Despite a decline in professional geographical mobility, mainly of people in affluent urban areas, due to remote work, the spatial leisure activities remained rather stable? Our findings, based on a negative binomial regression analysis, reveal also exacerbated socioeconomic segregation in recreational trips. The disruption in mobility accessibility due to COVID-19 appears to amplify existing socioeconomic disparities, notably in urban-to-rural leisure travel. Our research sheds new light on the widening gap in geographical leisure activities, emphasizing the need for equitable access to nonurban destinations.