Israel is one of the top destinations for health and fitness, offering a wide variety of boot camps, wellness retreats, and spa getaways with state-of-the-art workout facilities. Growing consumer awareness of the benefits of living a balanced lifestyle, accessibility to low-cost exercise facilities, and the emergence of gyms with modern equipment are driving the market's expansion.
However, during the COVID-19 restrictions, offline fitness service centers had to be shut which led to the rise of online fitness service centers. Now, even though the pandemic guidelines are relaxed and life is getting back to normal, the trend of working out from home has not gone. Here are our observations on digital disruption in the Fitness Service market of Israel.
The median age in Israel is 30.5 years
The largest city in Israel is Jerusalem, with a population of 972,720 people
Multi- Club Memberships: Members are no longer committed to a single facility but are, instead, leveraging the assets of multiple facilities to pursue their fitness and wellness goals.
To stay above competition, fitness and health clubs are developing innovative solutions and exercise models to retain and grow customer bases.
Virtual access or ‘workout from home’ made gyms and studios are increasing consistency, which provides a safer exercise regime to the consumer at the comfort of their home
Variety of Service Offerings
Growing Demand for HIIT
Growth of Ladies Fitness Center
Increase in Demand for Virtual Sessions
Catalyzed by the pandemic, consumer awareness of exercise has increased rapidly. The shift to virtual workouts increased access to different types of classes and highlighted the need for balance between physical & mental well-being
With the spreading of the pandemic, most gyms have extended their memberships to retain customers, and have introduced online countermeasures to compensate for the loss of revenue and customers caused by the shutdown
Fitness Centers and Personal Trainers along with Fitness Bloggers are using social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to conduct live workshops for the ease and convenience of home workouts thereby leading to higher participation rate
Noa Beny (@noabeny)
Mila Gricenko (@milagricenko)
Tal Revivo (@talrevivo)
Maayan Ashkenazi (@maayan__ashkenazi)
Keshet Buskila (@keshet_buskila)
Sapir Berko (@sapirberko_)
Vast Majority of the adult population (70%) exercise regularly or would like to exercise
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Market of people not exercising or in the exercise contemplation stage is equally important
Fitness operators have an enormous opportunity to capture an ever increasing segment of the population who are exercising or considering doing so.
The concept of Small Group Trainings are expected to gain prominence over time
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More than 30% of population prefer small group training rather than paying hefty amount for a personal trainer
Small Group Trainings offered by majority of the fitness centers is a solution for saving some money over one-on-one personal training, thereby increasing member participation
6 out of 10 people in Israel are likely to hire a certified personal trainer for Yoga, Muscle Training, Strength Building, Pilates and others
Fitness Centres should hire at least 6-8 qualified trainers to meet this demand by offering fitness instructor and personal trainer courses to interested individuals.
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Home exercise complements gym participation rather than competes with it.
Home based workouts provide a massive opportunity for operators to retain members (keeping them active outside of the facility) and promoting to considerers as a tactic to move them through the contemplation stage of exercise.
