RESEARCH
As many as half of respondents are spending the same on using health clubs and leisure centres now as they were a year ago opportunities GROWTH M
intel’s latest research into the leisure industry
– Leisure Review 2013, published in October
2013 – paints a positive picture for health and fitness, highlighting consumers’ reluctance to cut back their leisure centre usage, private health and fitness club membership and participation in sports. As for many sectors, the main issue
for the leisure industry has been the squeeze on consumer incomes being exerted by the combination of high infl ation and low earnings growth, which means people are becoming worse off in real terms month by month. However, the report highlights
a resilient industry. Despite tough economic conditions, as many as half (48 per cent) of respondents are spending the same on using private sector health clubs now as they were 12 months ago, while 16 per cent of respondents are spending more. In the public sector, 50 per cent are
spending about the same, and 10 per cent are spending more.
January 2014 © Cybertrek 2014 Michael Oliver outlines the
findings of Mintel’s 2013 health, fitness and leisure reports, and offers his thoughts on the opportunities to further extend the sector’s reach
Overall, roughly three in 10 Brits (30
per cent) have used a private health and fi tness club in the past 12 months, with just under one in 10 (8 per cent) using one on a weekly basis, and one in 20 (5 per cent) on a monthly basis.
Wooing women However, research finds there remains a notable disparity in health club usage between women and men in the UK – a point highlighted in the June 2013 Health and Fitness Clubs UK report. This is something that’s not evident in the US, where there’s broad parity of usage. One of the reasons for this is likely to be that health club membership is considerably cheaper on average in the US than the UK, and women tend to be
more cautious than men when it comes to making financial commitments. The rapid expansion of the budget health club sector in the UK should go a long way towards tackling this. Other opportunities also exist to
increase female membership. The main factors that potential female users say would motivate them to start using a health club are – aside from general health/wellness – losing weight, looking better and feeling better about themselves. Unsurprisingly then, when asked what would encourage them to join or rejoin a health club, women were much more likely than men to be infl uenced by appearance-driven factors – an unfl attering remark about their appearance or fi tness, for example, or an unfl attering holiday photo – indicating that marketing activity focused on the physical and emotional benefi ts of losing weight, looking and feeling good remains a strong platform for clubs to promote themselves to potential female users. Women are most likely to be
infl uenced by a free trial or a pay as you go option, echoing the fi ndings
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 69
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