1.1 Definition and presentation

Generally, the term fitness refers to a state of health and well-being of the body. To achieve this state, people are used to join specialized health and fitness centers that not only provide their members with workout facilities in exchange for a membership and subscription fee, but also offer their members a wide range of additional services such as personal training, group classes, and spas.

The global fitness market is worth $96.6 billion in 2024 with a growth rate of 7.7 percent. In total there are 210,000 fitness clubs to which as many as 184 million people are enrolled. However, the global market is not homogeneous: on the one hand, there are countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States that have very high membership numbers; on the other hand, in many countries, such as those in Latin America, there is a clear lack of fitness centers.

Today, the Italian market is characterized by the presence of 5.3 million active members and high fragmentation: the vast majority of facilities dedicated to fitness in Italyare independent clubs, while as many as 28 percent are modestly sized yoga or pilates studios. These numbers, as a result, significantly reduce the presence of large franchises. The Italian regions with the largest number of sportspeople turn out to be Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia, Romagna and Lazio.

The growth of the market is certainly linked to a greater propensity of people to take care of themselves and a greater awareness of the benefits associated with fitness. The fitness market has evolved significantly in recent years through the creation of new business models and training methods. In particular, 2020 was a crucial year in this respect: the losses associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused fitness clubs to close for long periods of time, were enormous. Despite this, the fitness market has shown great adaptability by taking full advantage of the potential of the digital world, offering virtual classes and workouts.

1.2 The Global Market

The global fitness market is estimated to reach a value of $**.* billion by **** growing at a CAGR of *.**% for the period from **** to ****. Factors such as increasing per capita disposable income, growing urban population, increasing obesity, increasing number of fitness clubs and gyms, and the inclination toward health clubs for fitness ...

1.3 The Italian market

In Italy, the fitness market is highly developed. A total of ** million Italians attend, each year, fitness places such as gyms, wellness centers and spas. In total, there are *,*** facilities on the territory and there are more than *** thousand professionals engaged in this sector. [***].

It is a market with a huge ...

1.4 The impact of Covid

Due to the restrictions put in place to curb the spread of Covid-**, the industry has suffered an unprecedented crisis and has gone through changes that will change the structure of the industry forever. Between February and May ****, the industry lost more than * billion and an estimated ***,*** professionals were impacted by ...

2.1 Consumption Habits

As mentioned, about ** million Italians participate in sports. Of these, according to the Eurobarometer, it is mainly freelancers and managers who do the most sports while the tendency to engage in physical activity decreases with increasing age. In Italy:

** percent of men and ** percent of women over ** do not play ...

2.2 Demand trends

The graph represents the proportion of searches for a given term in a given region in a given time period, compared to when it was most searched (***). Thus, a value of ** means that the keyword was used less often in the region, and a value of * means that there is not ...

2.3 The development of connected devices

The Anglo-Saxon term "wearable" is used to define all those wearable technological devices that measure and monitor a person's sports performance. By means of sensors, connected to the athlete, they transmit a series of data that allow monitoring one's performance, state of health, fatigue, stress and performance in general.

The type ...

2.4 The impact of the pandemic : the rise of domestic sports

As a result of the restrictions and lockdowns imposed, the fitness industry has had to reinvent itself. Efforts were made to reach Italians directly in their homes through apps and websites. Demonstrating the boom in digital training during the lockdown is data on the number of visits to diet or fitness ...

2.5

2.6 3.1 Market Structure

According to Robert Fitness is a "set of activities aimed at maintaining physical fitness by means of exercises performed with the help of equipment," however, there are different places and rooms, here is a quick overview.

All these centers and gyms have the same activities, although some prefer to specialize, but ...

3.2 Geographical Distribution

In total, there are about **** gyms in Italy, *.** per *** thousand inhabitants. The region that has the most in absolute terms is Lombradia, */* of the Italian total. On the other hand, the region that has the least is valle d'aosta with *.

If we analyze the number of gyms in proportion to the ...

3.3 A very fragmented market

Different types of players can be differentiated: very high-end gyms that present the most comfort in place, intermediate gyms, and low-cost gyms that disrupted the market a decade ago (***). The democratization of fitness and the exacerbation of competition have allowed this steady decline in subscription prices, which has been happening for ...

4.1 Prices and Various Strategies

the clubs' offerings and the type of subscription (***) vary widely. However, only **% of clubs have more than half of their customers with an annual subscription. This makes it a financially "fragile" market. The average price for an annual subscription is about *** euros per year.

In general, Italians are the biggest spenders ...

4.2 Sports Nutrition as Leverage for Fitness Centers

Several centers have partnerships with sports nutrition brands, this is a booming market in Italy where there are more than ** million, on average, people who use sports supplements, with numbers growing all the time[***]. When it comes to sports supplements, there is a multitude of products available, not only in terms ...

4.3 5.1 Regulation

Anyone can open a gym or fitness center, as long as they have adequate premises that comply with current workplace safety regulations and ASL health and administrative authorizations.

Specifically, the opening of a gymnasium requires the submission to the SUAP, in the municipality of residence, of a SCIA underLg ***/**** art. **, which ...