Swim school enrolments return to 95% of pre-COVID levels

New information from data and insights company ActiveXchange has revealed that the enrolment of young swimmers at Australia’s swim schools in January this year returned to 95% of the levels they were at in January 2020.

Comparing the swim school enrolments rate month-on-month to pre-COVID-19 level, ActiveXchange’s insights are an encouraging sign that participation in swim schools in Australia is on the path to returning to its pre-COVID-19 membership levels.

Looking at the two states most affected by the outbreak in June 2021, NSW and Victoria have both been experiencing fast enrolment rates since the easing of restrictions and reopening in October/November.

ActiveXchange’s investigation showed:

• Victorians had spent the most time in lockdown with the immediate two months following an easing restriction in November 2021 saw the recovery rate reach pre-COVID-19 levels but trajectory in January 2022 indicates the rate is likely to be under pre-pandemic level moving forward.

• NSW quickly returned and exceeded the pre-COVID-19 levels after reopening.

• The recovery rate in the older age group (11-to-20-years-old) is slightly faster and higher at returning to pre-COVID-19 level than compared to the younger students (10-years and under)

• Despite the challenges of the past two years the industry has faced, they have been able to bounce back and readied themselves to try to capture the demand once it returned.

ActiveXchange explain “with young swimmers (and their parents) wanting and willing to return to the pool as enrolment rates near the return to the pre-pandemic levels, it only reiterates the support the industry needs to meet this appetite.

“One of those areas, in particular, is qualified swimming teachers which would allow for more classes to be offered to more children and teenagers across Australia looking to dive back into the pool.”

Among a range of measure announced by swimming bodies and state governments, as recently as Sunday, NSW Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres announced up to 750 more accredited swim instructors would be eligible for free instructor training to help meet the demand of the NSW Government’s First Lap voucher program, aimed at pre-school water safety.

ActiveXchange's Jyo Shukla named in CMA's Top100 for 2022
ActiveXchange has also revealed that its Head of Customer Success, Jyo Shukla has been named one of the Top 100 Marketing Customer and Advocacy Strategists for 2022.

The Top100CMA Awards recognise 100 strategists in customer marketing and advocacy, chosen by the global customer success and marketing community.

The award is created to recognise and celebrate the innovative strategists in Customer Marketing and Advocacy (CMA).

The list is generated by the CMA community who were able to both nominate and vote on winners during a two-week voting period with the Top 100 Strategists determined based on their total vote count and influence scores as determined by the community.

Shukla, who was selected from a list of over 400 people worldwide, commented “I am honoured, humbled, and delighted to have my work recognised alongside global stalwarts in the customer advocacy and customer marketing space.

“The future belongs to customer-centric companies, and it is awesome to see an amazing group of people leading this message left, right and centre.”

Shukla, who is looking to continue to bring her innovation and vision of customer-centricity to life at ActiveXchange through understanding clients' needs and delivering a meaningful experience on their data journey, went on to say “as part of our mission to positively impact the lives of healthy and active people across the globe, ActiveXchange is putting some truly unique insights into the hands of the sports, leisure, and recreation sector.

"In doing that, my own aim is to put our customer's goals into the hands of our team, so that we can make the information provided by our cutting-edge technology relevant and intelligible for our customers. Every single person at ActiveXchange, regardless of their role, strives to understand what we need to help our customers make winning decisions because that’s where our own success truly lies.”

Click here to contact ActiveXchange via their entry in the Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory.

Images: (top, credit: Life Saving Victoria), ActiveXchange's swim school performance data (middle) and its assessment of swim school age enrolement data (below).