NZ
NEWS
News and views from the New Zealand fitness industry.
Keeping Kiwis safe and gyms open are two sides of the same
Going back only
a few weeks,
the industry was
breathing a collect
sigh of relief in
New Zealand. As
restrictions eased
to COVID-19 Level
1, businesses were reporting generally
positive results in terms of visits, revenue and,
perhaps most importantly, new membership
sales – all of which were at around 80-90% of
pre-COVID levels.
But all that changed overnight. In early
August, New Zealand reported its first cases
of community transmission for over 100
days, growing to over 120 new cases since
then. As a result, not only have government
restrictions increased around New Zealand,
but we are back to 24 hours being a long time.
‘Planning’ now often refers to timeframes of
days or weeks rather than months or years,
and the future is far from clear.
One thing we have focused on throughout
the pandemic is providing as much certainty
as possible for the industry – be it through
our Framework (which now covers Levels
1 to 3) or through advice and support on
business challenges. Since May 2020, we
have also been working on a number of
scenarios (including going back into Level 3)
and their ramifications for both our industry
and New Zealand’s exercising public.
Staying active, staying open and
staying safe
Front and centre of all of our work has
been the need to ensure that whatever
we advocate for is safe. We use the latest
evidence-based research, while also working
within government rules and messaging. At
the same time, we are very aware that the
latest outbreak in Auckland highlighted how
fragile the CV-19 Levels are, and can change
at any time. However, having rules that keep
everyone safe, but put gyms and trainers out
of business isn’t sustainable for either our
industry, or the New Zealand public. Over
three quarters of a million Kiwis regularly
use gyms, studios and exercise facilities in
some shape or form, so we want to support
them in staying active, and using facilities
and trainers safely.
So, in addition to keeping Kiwis safe,
we’ve been working on ways to keep exercise
businesses of all types and sizes open as
much as possible. We were fortunately
successful the first time around in removing
gyms from the ‘gyms and bars’ narrative. It
may have been forgotten that gyms were
among the first businesses to re-open under
the staged level 2 re-opening, when many
were predicting we would be last.
Our challenge now is very much around
Level 3. We have developed a number of
protocols that allow exercise businesses
to operate, albeit in a very limited fashion,
by keeping exercisers safe. This is the key
– safe and open. So far, the Government’s
response has been at best lukewarm, but
we continue to advocate for this. We want
Kiwis to stay active, exercise facilities to stay
open, and everyone to stay safe.
Do your bit to show we can
self-regulate
For us to be able to convince government that
our industry can operate safely at Level 3, we
first need to show them that we can do it at
Level 2. It’s important, therefore, that all trainers
and facilities follow the existing framework,
especially around physical distancing and
mask use. Without this, it makes it very difficult
for us to convince the relevant government
agencies that we can self-regulate and keep
the exercising public safe.
Adhering strictly to Level 2 rules will
enable us to have the hard conversations
with government and confidently advocate
on behalf of the collective industry. This will
allow us to find common ground between
protocols that we know are safe and those that
government find acceptable. This, in turn, will
enable trainers, studios, and exercise facilities
of all sizes and types to continue to operate at
Level 3 in some reduced capacity.
As always, reach out to us if you need
help, have questions or are simply feeling
overwhelmed. We may not have all the
answers, but we are here for our members,
of ExerciseNZ, the New Zealand Register
of Exercise Professionals and Yoga
New Zealand.
Richard Beddie
CEO, ExerciseNZ
[email protected]
NETWORK SPRING 2020 | 69