Findings From The New Pricing Intelligence Report Comparing Sports and Leisure Facilities Across London
London’s sport and leisure price increases for 2008-2009 have been set below the rate of inflation – a key finding from the latest London wide Leisure Pricing Report, from The Leisure Database Company.
The Leisure Pricing Report compares prices for 16 sports and leisure facilities across the 33 London Boroughs and reveals an overall 3.6% increase in charges, below the rate of inflation (4.6%), and below last year’s increase of 3.9% as Councils seek to increase participation in sports and leisure activities.
26 of the 33 London Boroughs have set leisure charges below or in-line with inflation to compete in the current economic climate. The London Borough of Sutton has the highest percentage increase in charges at 10.4% and the London Borough of Greenwich had the lowest increase at a mere 1.8%.
Charge levels for outdoor facilities increased by 4.2% - a higher percentage than indoor facility charges which were increased by 3.3% overall.
The report, also featuring comparisons of monthly direct debit gym membership fees across the capital for both private and public gyms, is now in its 19th year. Pricing levels are compared for 166 public gyms with monthly direct debits and 398 private gyms. This is in addition to the London borough prices for 16 core sports and leisure facilities, including fees for swimming, synthetic turf pitches and sports halls.
The report highlighted that the average London monthly direct debit fee for public gyms is £39.18 whilst for private gyms it’s £57.02. London’s price diversity for gym memberships is vast. The report shows that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has the most expensive average direct debit private gym membership at £101.87, which is nearly 80% higher than the average across London. Whilst the London Borough of Redbridge has the lowest public sector direct debit charge at £29.50, which is 24.7% below the cross-London average.
The new 2008/09 Leisure Pricing Report also includes price comparisons across the London Boroughs on group exercise classes. The pricing intelligence, contained in the report, highlights that the lowest average charges for group exercise are found in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham and the highest average charges are in the London Borough of Barnet.
Nigel Baker Bates from the leisure consultancy New Horizons comments, “When looking at setting or reviewing prices, just looking at price movements compared with your competitors isn’t enough; you also need to understand your customers and your market to get pricing right. Woking Borough Council dropped their monthly charge for its Evolve Gym from £49 to £35 for 2008/09. The results are that membership increased from 650 to 2,000 with membership income growing by 68% from £194,000 to £325,000. Was this just good guesswork, intuition, experience? No. Nobody, whatever their experience, would have taken that decision. Good market intelligence and accurate profiling of your customers gives you the knowledge to make informed decisions”.
For more information please contact Jenny Stanley, Strategic Marketing Manager at jenny@theleisuredatabase.com
