Fit for purpose

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Fitness is increasingly becoming an essential lifestyle choice and is not exclusive, according to Fitness First CEO Gary Knill.

The hotel is currently developing beach massage cabanas to open in 2009 to further integrate the different components.

For the club spa that gets the ground work right, in terms of feasibility and design, there is the benefit of attracting a large and unique customer base.

Targeting the fitness goer

Fitness First, in the BurJuman mall, Dubai, has a tenanted spa called Dragonfly.

"I think it's a great asset for a fitness facility to have the stress-reducing benefits of a professional spa," says CEO of Fitness First Middle East Gary Knill.

"And for the spa there's the seeding of the professional fitness goer. Typically they're not spa goers; they are exercisers that like to go to the gym, sweat and stuff.

"However, these things change as you experience the spa and see the benefits of the relaxation and the specialised treatments we have here," says Knill.

"I think we're converting more fitness people than we thought we could," he adds.

Knill says that you have to work very hard to get gym goers to the spa, but once they've tried it they become regular users.

There are a number of ways that Fitness First has attracted gym users to the spa. It offers new club members a free quarterly massage for the first year and all members get discounted treatments; a promotion also in place at the Hilton Abu Dhabi.

Dragonfly also benefits from large marketing budgets of an established facility.

"We have quite a stringent marketing campaign, which we put a lot of time and effort into and we bolt Dragonfly onto the side of it and they share the same database," says Knill.

"I think the link to the brand gives the spa an edge." Knill  also emphasises the importance of word of mouth, saying gym members talk about Dragonfly once they've tried it.

In addition to this, the spa runs its own campaigns. Dragonfly retreat manager Adele Duncan says that she regularly emails the gym's client database with promotions, as well as displaying posters in Fitness First centres across the region.

"I also use the text which comes up on the large-screen televisions in the gym to say, for example, ‘get 10% off fitness massages this week,' which people will read while on the treadmill," says Duncan.

The club spa can offer tailored post-workout treatments. The Hilton Abu Dhabi spa advertises yoga, stress-relief workouts, pilates, medical gym and sports massages to complement the fitness component.

Similarly, Dragonfly is promoting a contour-control programme which is an anti-cellulite, appetite suppressing reflexology treatment to help gym members who are slimming achieve their desired results.

All of these methods have been relatively successful for Dragonfly, which has seen an approximate growth in capture rate over the last 12 months from 5% to 15% of the 1000 members; an increasing figure.

"The good thing about targeting large databases of club members is that you only need to apply a relatively small capture rate to the female section and you've got the number of treatments required to make the spa profitable," concludes Beven.

"Fitness is becoming essential instead of exclusive; an essential component of people's lifestyle. The relaxing spa element accompanied by fitness is a tremendous scenario," adds Knill.

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