The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Gym owners yesterday described the first day following their third COVID-19 re-opening as “incredible”, voicing hopes that an industry-wide shutdown will not be repeated.

Regina Smith, owner/operator of Energy Fitness, said: “The first day back has been incredible. We're one of the ones that were fortunate to be able to carry on virtually, so our virtual turnout was great.

"Our in-studio bookings were through the roof. I'd like to say that all of our Pilates Reformer classes, which we’re mostly known for, are completely booked out for the rest of the week.”

Ms Smith added that Bahamians will start to feel “more confident as the weeks go on" and start to “get moving again". She said: “Once Bahamians felt like the protocols were put in place, they were ready to move. So we're excited. We're very thankful to God and to the Prime Minister for letting us open up, and it's been a great experience so far.”

Ms Smith acknowledged, however, that December was a slow period for gym membership as consumers prioritised consumer spending. She said: “In our industry, it does tend to trend down in December.

"But I think that with a pandemic we’ve had elastic side effects. For our studio it's not the same, because we're a small group studio and a personal training studio, so we work a lot of ‘one on one’ with the clients.

Ms Smith explained that such close contact allows her to keep track of her patrons, and “because we kept them virtually engaged" compliance with the COVID-19 protocols is not an issue.

She added: “It was a lot easier to get them to now come back into the studio. You know, they were already hungry. We kept that constant contact, and so it was a matter of open up. Okay, great. I'm there. I've been seeing you virtually; I need to see you in person.”

Dr Kent Bazard, owner/operator of Empire Fitness, said: “We had a steady flow. Everybody was excited and happy to be back. But it is a long road to getting back to where we were. The protocols aren’t really intrusive for us and it is not an issue. We had a good crowd this morning. They were very eager to get back into the gym.

"I hope we follow the model where businesses don’t close, and instead we just monitor the amount of people and traffic. The emergency settings in some places are 30 percent capacity for essential businesses and 20 percent for non-essential businesses.

"I hope we don’t just don’t blindly close everything. I hope we do something to soften the blow and not just shut them down because the economy cannot take much more of that.”

Another gym owner, speaking under condition of anonymity, said yesterday was “slow" as the sector's off-peak season typically involves the calendar year's final few months. The few customers they saw were “nothing to brag about", and they added: “Everybody is getting ready for holidays now, so we’re just taking it as it comes.”

Looking forward to January for a better customer turnout, the gym owner added: “Hopefully things could work out where we are not locked down after the holiday, because we don't want to repeat what happened last time we got shut down.”