Like many other facilities, fitness studios also had to close during the corona pandemic. Many of the members stayed away, some did not survive.
Erfurt (dpa/th) - The fitness studios in Thuringia have not yet recovered from the slump in membership numbers caused by the corona pandemic. At the end of 2021, they had around 153,000 members, as the Employers' Association of German Fitness and Health Facilities (DSSV) announced on request. The numbers were around 50,000 below those of the end of 2019, the last year before Corona. In 2020, the numbers in Thuringia had already fallen to 171,000.
The number of facilities available in the fitness area has also decreased significantly. In 2019 there were still 176 facilities where Thuringians could keep fit, in 2020 there were 169. Last year their number fell to 168. The so-called response rate, which shows the ratio of members in fitness facilities to the total population, was 7.2 percent at the end of 2021. At 6.6 percent, this rate was lower only in Saxony-Anhalt.
The slump in the industry in Thuringia was even stronger than in the national comparison. At the end of 2019, the German fitness and health studios were still able to record a membership record of 11.66 million people. The long closures ordered by the authorities and the 3G, 2G and 2G-plus regulations meant that the number of members fell by 2.4 million to 9.26 million in December 2021. While the nationwide average decline was 20.6 percent, in Thuringia it was around 26.8 percent.
According to the DSSV, a slight upswing can be seen in the first half of 2022 despite considerable adversity. As of June 30, 2022, around 280,000 new members could have been gained nationwide, which corresponded to a net growth of three percent to 9.54 million members. According to the DSSV, Thuringia's fitness studios may also have gained in this magnitude.
