The turn of the year has always been the time of good intentions. One of the most popular so far has always been to declare war on the excess Christmas kilos and regain a reasonable physique by the summer bathing season. Accordingly, the tills rang reliably in the fitness studios at the beginning of the year – until Corona came. Meanwhile, the gym booths are about to enter their third year of the pandemic, and slowly but surely, even the most well-trained gym operator is running out of breath. Fitness studios in the Ebersberg district also feel this.
“Everything that you had built up over ten years was gone in a very short time,” says Eduard Dirksen, head of the Fit for Friends studio in Ebersberg. The situation has been critical for a long time, but the studio was hit really hard during the seven-month complete closure in 2020. At that time, 30 percent of the members were lost, said Dirksen. It is unclear whether this will ever be regained. “The rush isn’t there this year either and new registrations haven’t been made.” Before Corona, the exact opposite would have been the case at this time of year.
The industry association sounds the alarm
The German Industry Association for Fitness and Health (DIFG) suspects another reason why this season is getting off to such a slow start again. “2G-plus regulations have a significant impact on new registrations,” says DIFG chairman Ralph Scholz. For many people it is simply too time-consuming to present a current test in addition to a proof of vaccination or recovery. But that is exactly what even people who have been vaccinated twice have had to do since the end of November. Only those who have already been vaccinated three times have been allowed to go back to the studios without restrictions since mid-December. “Where the rule was introduced, new business has almost completely collapsed,” says Scholz.
Good resolutions or not: There is little going on in the studios at the beginning of the year.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
An assessment that the Ebersberg studio manager Eduard Dirksen can only partially confirm. “We have already noticed 2G plus. Of course, the people weren’t thrilled to have to test themselves additionally.” Since boosted people have been allowed to train again without restrictions, the new regulations have hardly played a role. And for everyone who has not yet picked up the third Corona Pik, the Ebersberg fitness studio offers quick tests on site anyway. For Dirksen it is therefore clear: “The main reason for the dismissals is not the tests, but Corona in general.”
The pandemic not only has an impact on the number of members in the studios, but also on their employees. As in the catering industry, many of them looked around for another job, as Dirksen explains. “There have been some who have changed industries.” In Ebersberg, however, the departure was limited, only two 450-euro employees were lost, according to the studio manager. This was mainly due to the fact that the Fit for Friends Studio initially continued to raise fees even during the complete closure. “We had to cover our running costs for staff and rent,” says Dirksen. Now members can have vouchers issued for the missed time.
Anything is better than having to lock up completely again
For the studio, however, this is at best an emergency solution with which one tries to straighten out the predicament a little, as Dirksen says. Because one thing is clear: “That will add to the damage in the long term.” The studio manager expects that about 30 to 40 percent of the members will not pay any fees for a year due to the voucher regulation, and the studio will have significantly less income accordingly. Nevertheless, everything is better than another complete closure.
In the meantime, the industry association DIFG expects that the first quarter will be at least as bad this year as last year thanks to the Omikron variant. At that time the fitness studios were completely closed, but now the operators would have to bear the full costs with significantly lower utilization. “Operators have livelihood problems again,” says DIFG chairman Ralph Scholz. Eduard Dirksen does not want to see it quite so pessimistically. Despite everything, he is quite confident for this year. “We hope it gets better.”