High traffic leisure facilities include establishments such as multiplex cinemas, water parks, zoos, theme parks, large museums and combined facilities for shopping and leisure. Just like high traffic shopping centres, large leisure facilities attract a considerable number of visitors and therefore place a strain on local transport networks. Compared to shopping centres, high traffic leisure facilities have a number of specific characteristics:

- Visitor flows vary greatly from day to day and from week to week, as well as from season to season. Many facilities attract extremely high visitor flows within a very short space of time. This poses particular challenges for accessibility and the planning of transport structures.

- A considerable number of visitors travel from a long way away, often using long distance services. For this reason, great importance needs to be attached to the long distance network.

- Depending on the type of services offered, leisure facilities can attract specific visitor types who may have a preference for a particular mode of transport. Target-group oriented approaches are therefore required if the way people travel is to be influenced.

- High traffic leisure facilities can be found in city centres, in suburban areas, and in rural areas. Given this variety, the quality of transport links and the local environment parameters will differ greatly from facility to facility. The planning function for leisure facilities must therefore be designed in a highly context-sensitive way.

Recommendations as to how high traffic facilities should be planned have up until now been based mainly on the analysis of major shopping centres. The unique characteristics of leisure facilities, however, mean that proposed measures should be developed in a targeted way for precisely these high traffic establishments.