It’s time for the sector to represent more powerfully – not only by collaborating with close allies, but also by joining forces with other service industries such as hospitality and retail

Industry bodies globally are increasingly effective at lobbying on behalf of the sector, with EuropeActive, the Health and Fitness Association, UK Active, Aus Active, the Global Health and Fitness Alliance and others stepping up to represent the needs of operators and make the case for the power of physical activity to change lives and optimise health resources.

But the size of our sector is still a huge disadvantage when it comes to really landing our argument with governments and it’s time for us to join forces, not only within our sector to present a united front, but also with other service sectors, such as retail and hospitality, to position our industry more powerfully with decision-makers.

Globally, retail employs around 430 million people and hospitality around 320 million and there are clear synergies between these markets, with retail driving traffic to hospitality and vice versa.

Hospitality and retail in the UK employ around 3.5 million people apiece, or around 16 per cent of the workforce, while in contrast, the health and fitness industry is currently nudging the 200k mark.

So when you listen to the news and sometimes hear hospitality and retail being mentioned in relation to their lobbying efforts and not the fitness industry, this is largely down to the perception of the sector in the eyes of governments in terms of scale and economic impact.

As fitness, health and wellness increasingly impact the day-to-day lives of consumers, there will be opportunities to connect all these sectors more closely in relation to footfall, services and experiential development.

We’d love to see key service sectors uniting to collaborate and to represent, for the greater good and with our trade associations leading the way.

Fitness, health and wellness operators have significant synergies with hotels, hospitality and retailing, with organisations from these sectors, such as global hotel operators, increasingly collaborating with our sector – Equinox is building hotels, as is Life Time. Accor Well-being is becoming a major operator of health clubs and wellness facilities, Everlast Gyms is combining fitness with a powerful retail element, retailer, Colruyt Group, is building a gym chain and local authorities are partnering ever more closely with health.

With all this activity driving change, it’s time to join the dots and find ways to forge powerful collaborations between all these allied sectors for the benefit of the wider community and the future of our market.