It should come as no surprise that Asia’s massive population and highly educated workforce continue to help drive prosperity throughout the region, including South Asia such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) such as Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, to East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan.
Franchising has benefited directly from this prosperity during the past few decades in Asia with many international brands like Ace Hardware, Little Caesars Pizza, Snap Fitness, Church’s / Texas Chicken, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Chili’s and many more staking their claim in these lucrative markets. It started with mostly food & beverage (F&B) restaurants, and have led to many other franchise sectors, including retail, fashion and apparel, education and training, services, hospitality, and even health and fitness franchises.
Asia’s increasing wealth and prosperity has been attributed to rising incomes and a large and maturing workforce – a workforce that day by day is highly cognizant on prolonging their health, fitness, and longevity. Take South Korea for example, many health and fitness trends can be easily seen in modern day Koreans.
Source: OECD
Source: OECD
According to Report Linker, the South Korea health & fitness clubs and gyms market was expected to reach US$940.3 million in 2018. The study also observed that the fitness industry would grow by 1.9 percent between 2018 and 2023, reaching US$1,034.3 million by the end of 2023.
The key factors above have created the perfect storm for the health and fitness industries in South Korea. Gym memberships, while not as high as they are in the USA and western world, continue to climb. Other major fitness trends include:
Fitness center franchise adapting to these fitness trends in Korea and Asia as a whole will benefit greatly. The sizable South Korean market presents real fitness franchise opportunities for established and proven fitness centre franchise, including fitness franchises such as US-based Snap Fitness, the world’s premier 24/7 technology focused fitness franchise with over 2,500 clubs worldwide.
Author: Sean T. Ngo is the CEO and Co-Founder of one of Asia’s leading franchise consultancy, VF Franchise Consulting. He is Vietnamese American and has been living in Vietnam for over 15 years. You can reach him at sean@wordpress-1301377-4733018.cloudwaysapps.com or on LinkedIn.