Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, the fitness centers in Austria have been closed for more than half a year. The studios are constantly losing members and are trying, in ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Health and Economics, to be able to reopen on March 1st. With corona tests, such as those you have to do before going to the hairdresser, that could succeed, says industry spokesman Christian Hörl.
“We are in ongoing talks, also with the sports clubs, in order to coordinate ourselves,” said Hörl on Friday at the APA. “We were actually very optimistic that it should have started again on January 24th, until the topic of these mutations became increasingly broader.” Now there are again some signals that would point to a start on March 1st, “but always with the reservation of how things will go with the mutations”.
Reopening with “Reintesten”, implementation still unclear
The reopening will in any case be linked to the “purest”, as is the case with the hairdressers. “But it is still about the practicable implementation and the question of how long a test should be valid. In top sport it is currently one week, with body-friendly services 48 hours.” It is important that the solution can also be implemented. The Ministry of Health said that a test was actually worthless after just three hours. “My approach is statistical: It's a thousand times better if people do a test once a week, as is now the case in top-class sport. You would still be able to fish out a large number of people in total and would have a good situation for everyone else. “
Corona tests in the studios themselves are also conceivable, similar to how they are now carried out on school children before they go to school. “Operational test roads are also being considered. I definitely consider that to be possible,” said the industry spokesman. The central issue is of course the responsibility of the customer. It should not be the case that the operators are liable for false information, for example. “The checking and coordination of these tests can definitely be guaranteed by the fitness studios.” The studios could do that, “no industry can do contact tracing so precisely because every visit is registered”. Because the health aspect of the topic is summarized under “indoor sports”, one is also in contact with the sports clubs, said Hörl.
Lost 20 to 25 percent of the customer base
During the lockdown, there was state aid for the fitness center, admitted Hörl, but the number of regular customers had fallen sharply due to the natural departure, for example due to relocation. “There was no access for seven months. This means that the companies between 20 and lost 25 percent of the customer base “. In total, the studios would still have around one million members. “That is more than the football association, the ski association and the alpine club have members.”
A particular problem is that the fitness centers almost only have fixed costs. “If there are 20 percent fewer customers, I still have exactly the same costs as a company, which is immediately reflected in the result. That is why we are hoping for a VAT reduction for the period after the reopening, similar to that for the gastro It will take us two to three years to get back to pre-crisis levels. ” One would like a temporary halving of the value added tax to ten percent.
Financial problems expected at the opening
So far there have been very few bankruptcies. “The problem does not start with us until the opening, if the help for the current month and the tax deferrals cease, then things look completely different.” There were dismissals in the first lockdown at many companies. At the second lockdown almost everyone was on short-time work, “otherwise they would not have received the November aid”.
Customer loyalty will now also be important. Legally it is clear that customers do not have to pay for membership when the fitness center is closed. In his own operations you can find various solutions with the customers – ranging from the immediate stop of payments to compensation after reopening or a free extension of the term.
