Personal Training | Member Retention | 3D Body Scanning

What is a Passport Program and Should Your Fitness Center Join One?

Written by Giselle Naranjo | 4/28/21 2:00 PM

In the current environment, gym owners must leverage every tool possible to promote increased membership.

Around the world, gyms are slowly starting to reopen in the wake of COVID-19. For obvious reasons, however, enrollment levels aren’t quite as strong as before the pandemic. Resultantly, it’s especially important to work on building your membership numbers.

It’s a challenging time for gyms. Nevertheless, facility owners around the world are rising to the challenge.

With this in mind, passionate gym owners are finding alternative ways to generate revenue. Many are taking advantage of new technology. However, participating in a fitness passport network is also a good way to generate revenue for your club.

Continue reading to learn more about passport programs and whether your fitness center should join one.

 

 

A New Business Climate Calls for New Tactics

The fitness industry is in the middle of one of the most challenging periods ever. Many fitness centers have closed.

Others have scaled back their staff. Yet other fitness center owners have realized that they’ll need to broaden their business model.

As an example, some club owners have invested in advanced fitness technology. The technology enables them to provide profitable value-added services such as non-invasive body assessment scanning. With this kind of equipment, gyms can help clients battle challenging conditions such as obesity.

Furthermore, gym owners are using such innovations to overcome today’s challenges. As things stand, change is essential to sustain operations in the new normal.

Club owners who invest in new concepts and expand their offerings will survive. However, those that fail to change will fall by the wayside.

Technology is one way that you can take advantage of innovations to help your establishment thrive. However, you can also tap into your area’s transient fitness clients by participating in a passport fitness program.

 

How a Fitness Passport Program Works

Slowly, governments around the world are lifting gym restrictions as conditions improve. As this happens, revenue will once again start to flow.

However, you may have some work to do to get your membership count back up to pre-pandemic levels. Participation in a fitness passport program is a great way to do just that.

By signing on with a fitness passport program, you’ll gain instant access to clientele. Furthermore, you can provide value-added service by giving your members a way to access other gyms. You may wonder why you would want to send your members to another gym, but there’s a method to this madness.

Participation in the fitness passport program is a great way to boost revenue. With this kind of program, members can frequent facilities as often as they like. Furthermore, they can also visit different facilities.

For example, a fitness passport member may want to use one gym during the workweek. However, they may want to use one closer to home on the weekends.

Alternatively, a fitness client may go off on vacation or holiday. Still, they can take advantage of their fitness passport to access a participating gym. They can find locations easily online. Likewise, passport holders from other gyms will visit your facility once you join a fitness passport network.

 

 

What Is a Fitness Passport?

There are fitness passport programs of varying degrees around the world. One notable fitness passport program is in Australia. The program is simply called “Fitness Passport.”

The Fitness Passport program gives members access to multiple gyms and pools. The program also provides access for family members.

Members can use the passport as many times as they like. In Australia, the Fitness Passport program makes it easier for members to achieve their health goals. Participants can access any facility available through the program.

A fitness passport is a different kind of gym membership. It allows members and their immediate family members to use any fitness passport gyms.

Membership in Fitness Passport enables members to take advantage of a range of facilities. They can also use a vast selection of participating pools or spas at gyms.

 

 

A New Tool for Boosting Membership

With a fitness passport, members receive exceptional value. What’s more, they’ll have more passport program options than they could ever pursue.

The Fitness Passport program is a closed network. In other words, only employees of select companies can participate in the program. However, there’s no fee for companies to join the network.

It’s easy for qualifying individuals to join a fitness passport program. For example, a candidate for a fitness passport would simply navigate to the website to set up a new account.

There, they’d enter their bank details, employee ID number and provide a photo. They’ll then receive an email with their membership information.

By partnering with Fitness Passport, you can increase your monthly revenue. If you operate in Australia and you’d like to join Fitness Passport, you can contact the organization for more information.

Tap Into a Global Market With Fitness Passport Participation

Fitness Passport isn’t the only network in the business. The International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) sponsors a passport program with global affiliates.

The IHRSA is a nonprofit trade association that represents the fitness industry. The organization is dedicated to promoting better health and regular exercise. It’s served as an advocate for the fitness industry for more than 30 years.

The IHRSA Passport Program is available to gym owners and clients around the world. Members of the program can find locations easily using the TrainAway app. Gym owners send invitation codes to members to their clients allowing them to sign up for the network.

Members can take advantage of several passport program offerings. After signing up, for instance, users save 25% off one-day passes at participating IHRSA passport clubs.

TrainAway manages the payments. They’ll then forward a monthly activity report and repayments to your club each month.

There’s no gym owner enrollment fee to participate in the program. However, you must have membership and IHRSA.

There’s also no cost or work involved in setting up technology for the program. TrainAway handles all the work on the back end.

 

 

Added Convenience Equals Added Business

As of 2019, there are more than 1,200 IHRSA Passport Program locations around the world. Members can access a global network of participating fitness facilities.

The IHRSA has digitized the entire process in partnership with TrainAway. With the technology, traveling fitness fans can find your facility easily.

The IHRSA Passport Program has participating locations in more than 35 countries spanning four continents. Users of the program span 140 countries around the world.

Furthermore, the app is available in many languages. No matter where you operate, you can benefit by participating in the IHRSA Passport Program or other similar programs.

Passport members enjoy TrainAway’s intuitive interface. It makes the service easy to use.

Areas with more tourism tend to achieve better results by participating in the IHRSA’s passport program. What’s more, it gives visitors from around the world an opportunity to experience different gym facilities. Visitors enjoy the convenience and discounts, and gym owners appreciate the added revenue.

For some gym owners, the IHRSA Passport Program is priceless. It serves as an excellent membership building and marketing tool, especially among the corporate set.

 

Growing Your Fitness Business in Today’s Market

Now is the time to broaden your business model. Another way to do so is by investing in innovative technology.

The pandemic has shown us that poor health makes us vulnerable. For example, research shows that obesity can complicate the symptoms of COVID-19 considerably.

You can invest in a tool such as the Styku 3D body scanner to help your clients maintain optimal health. People don’t have the ability to perform this kind of important scan at home. You provide a highly beneficial service to individuals by offering this benefit.

Furthermore, body scans can prove profitable. For example, you could offer 3D body scanning specials, such as three scans for $99.

Whether you’re thinking about opening a gym or own an existing facility, it’s important to create a one-of-a-kind experience for your members. You’ll need to make sure that your gym stands out from the crowd. It’s challenging staying ahead of the pack, but you can do it with the right tools.

3D scanning technology benefits both your clients and employees. It makes it easier to evaluate your members’ health.

It’s also an excellent selling point for clients who are serious about tracking their progress. With 3D scanning technology, you can make tracking gains a part of your clients’ regular workout routine.

Today, you need to offer something special. You must provide value-added benefits in order to grow. Benefits and features such as fitness challenges, 3D body scanning, and fitness passport participation can enable you to do just that.

 

 

Offer Value-Added Service for Your Clients!

Now you know more about passport programs and whether your fitness center should join one. If you’re looking for technology that will enable you to provide value-added benefits, look no further than Styku. With the Styku 3D body scanner, you can create stunning, interactive 3D visuals.

Styku 3D body scanners are the gold standard and health assessment. Our equipment enables you to perform non-invasive body scanning and measuring.

Our scanner is also convenient. You can perform scans easily on clients wearing leggings, shorts, and form-fitting clothing

Furthermore, the system is completely autonomous and private. More importantly, it’s fast.

You can perform scans in a mere 35 seconds. Also, it only takes 40 seconds to process the image. Resultantly, our 3D body scanner is the fastest offering on the market.

Please feel free to contact Styku today at (323) 372-2628 or connect with us online to request a quote.