“The report reveals swimming to be one of the country's most accessible sports - 84 per cent of people live within two miles of their nearest pool”
In the 12 months to 31 March 2011 the increase in pool facilities on offer through public sector sports centres offsets the marginal decline in the number of swimming pool facilities at private health clubs. Regional variations are apparent too. Northern Ireland and the North East have the lowest provision of pools and the South East has the high- est provision. In the public sector, Scotland shares the highest regional provision with the South East. What type of pools are there in the national stock? The report reveals the make-up of the stock to be mainly indoor main pools (58.8 per cent), over one quarter are teaching pools, just seven per cent are leisure pools and seven per cent are outdoor pools. In the private health club sector the majority of pools are found at multi-site operator clubs, given the development and operational costs of pools. However we are witnessing a decreasing number of pools open- ing in the private health club sector, as club openings in that sector move
ISSUE 1 2012 © cybertrek 2011
towards low cost opera- tions which don’t have pool facilities.
In the public sec- tor there has been an increase in centres with new pool openings. In the 12 months to 31 March 2011 there were 27 new pool openings at public sports centres, and 10 at private health clubs. The top fi ve trusts and leisure management contractors operate 20 per cent of the UK public pool market.
Pricing and technology Pricing is part of the consumer’s choice of swimming over other activi- ties. In the public sector, swimming prices vary across the regions. The average cost of a pay-and-play adult swim among public sector pools ranges from £2.76 in Northern Ireland (18 per cent below UK average) to £3.89 in London (15 per cent above
Splashpath is a free mobile phone application that allows users to get live information on swimming timetables and events
UK average). The top fi ve trusts notably charge higher than the average adult pay-and-play fee for swims at their centres. New technology will play an important role in encouraging further swimming participation. Splashpath, the free
mobile application, encourages more people to swim more often with readily available, live pool and timetable infor- mation. Already there are over 26,000 swimmers and over 100 operators using Splashpath to promote their pools, all of which are location-aware. Splashpath is seen as an industry solution to increase swimming par- ticipation. On recent evidence this appears to be true. Splashpath has
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leisuremanagement.co.uk/digital 43
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