Strutt & Parker’s latest copy of “Leisure Comment” published today explores the latest news in the leisure sector from health and fitness centres to golf clubs and hotels. It is the first issue to be published since the Strutt & Parker merger with William Hillary Leisure and Hotels which took place in January this year.
In their article on the Health and Fitness sector Colin Crosthwaite and William Hillary predict that the top operators will see a 36% planned growth of new clubs by the end of the year 2000. “Despite the substantial growth in health and fitness clubs in recent years, there is no evidence of any slowdown in demand amongst leading operators.”
Strutt & Parker’s Health and Fitness League Table contains some of the most authoritative statistics to be published by the industry about the industry. With data collected from and checked by the top operators it predicts the future of the industry over the next eighteen months.
In the golf sector Charles Greville-Heygate and Mark Smith comment, “!998 was another active year for the market although, as we predicted last year, the level of activity was below the record levels of 1997” and, looking forward to 1999, “the number of transactions in the UK in 1999 will be similar to those in 1998 although we are expecting to see greater activity by UK operators in continental Europe.”
Finally Richard Candey looks at the growth in the budget sector of the hotel industry. “Recent surveys have shown exceptional growth in the budget hotel sector with annual growth since the early 1990s in the order of 20% – both in terms of hotels and bedrooms. Today there are around 560 budget hotels and future plans are looking ambitious. Forecasts predict that by 2003 in excess of 1,150 budget hotels will be operating in the UK with some 70,000 bedrooms.”