Solutions and Diversity to Maximise Occupancy and Usage

David Norman of Eye Fitness believes aquatic, fitness, recreation and sport facilities need to deliver solutions and diversity.

As Norman explains "we know the stable of sports, fitness classes, weights and cardio equipment that works well if people opt to perform these regularly. Unfortunately we have a massive epidemic of overweight, diabetic and at-risk people as well as an aging market place that these rituals do not greatly appeal to. As an industry we are seeing an amazing response to trends such as 'Zumba' while Curves clubs have previously done wonders in getting people active away from the current clubs and regimes.

"The trick is ensuring there is enjoyment, social connection, progress and variety so people can get results and choose to add exercise based interaction to their schedules. Ultimately this is a win for operators as 'retention' or addiction to exercise.

"The club model I love in the USA is the huge program athletic club model that offers everything (with progression) from basic gymnastics for kids, learn to swim, dance lessons, indoor sports training and competitions, fitness, group exercise, martial arts, creche, day spas and seniors programs. These facilities show us the meaning of diversity, progression and retention. These facilities enable a child to progress through a range of learning and discovery of body awareness related skills, sports and activities. This 'one stop shop' benefits the childâs learning and understanding of exercise and sport (which are different!), while also benefiting the whole family as they can all be part of a range of activities in the one place.

"Not only does this apply to children but also to adults and seniors and other specialised community groups where this facility continually serves up variety and opportunity to keep members from infancy till inability. The key to success of this model is the 'program director' which must deliver and utilise and many training rooms, facilities and resources to attract users/members with a combination of traditional results based solutions with innovative engaging methods which double as a marketing platform. Best of all, these are at one location, the true essence of a âthird spaceâ that can be fundamental part of the community. These sites become destination facilities or sites the rest of community can function around.

"While local communities may not have the luxury of such facilities at our disposal we do have community facilities, sports halls, recreation and leisure centres or other multipurpose facilities in our local council areas that could offer such a system and collective solution. The key here is space utilisation and programs that can be offered with minimal storage and not effecting the existing programs in place but yet complementing what they do offer. Not every solution under the sun can be offered or afforded to be offered but a review of your local market and current user groups should identify who is not being catered for and which group, programs would be best to target. Then a program director needs to start rolling out a range of solutions to get users in the doors, progress them to other facilities and services whilst also adding and reviewing the existing programs.

"Return on investment is key to this but unfortunately sometimes you will need to spend money to make money while at other times an innovation like 'Zumba' can become an instant cash cow. When looking for diverse options to better utilise these facilities it is important to consider program options that are suitable for multiple users groups at different times.

"This might see the space used by personal trainers in the early mornings, seniors in the morning, school groups in the afternoon, sports teams or disabled groups in the after school hours and a ladies only class in the evening.

"Unfortunately, the population of non active people have ...

To contact EYE Fitness, click here to view their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

16th September 2009 - EYE FITNESS LAUNCHES BIODENSITY PRODUCTS