JEDDAH — Key players in Saudi Arabia's thriving sports & fitness industry discussed and recommended steps for the industry to take advantage of the huge opportunities presented by the GCC's biggest economy. A recent meeting held at the Hilton Hotel in Jeddah, served as a kickoff for Saudi International Sport & Fitness (ISF Saudi), the Kingdom's only major international sports and fitness exhibition, to be held on Nov. 25-28 this year at the Jeddah Centre for Forums and Events. ISF Saudi is the Kingdom's only event dedicated to the international Sport, Fitness, Health and Wellness industry, and is powered by FIBO – the worldwide leading trade fair for Fitness, Wellness and Health. The meeting was organized and led by Reed Sunaidi Exhibitions, organizers of ISF Saudi. Nasser Obid, Managing Director for Delta Fitness Authority, distributors of Life Fitness, said while the world's leading exhibition in Germany, FIBO, was all about promoting the industry, FIBO's KSA exhibition, ISF Saudi, is an exhibition to help establish the industry in the first place. “The industry needs to develop, and we have a long way to go” said Obeid, “and an exhibition like ISF Saudi can help this development”. He added that KSA is still at the first stage of sports development, that being improving the sport and fitness infrastructure and facilities in Saudi Arabia. This needs expertise, both local and international. To be able to have the expertise you need talent, and to be able to bring talent you need good management.” Moreover, he said “once you have the infrastructure, the expertise, the talent and the management you are in the position to advance in terms of education, to get professional business community and general public fully engaged in sport and fitness and ultimately promote a sporting culture for Saudi Arabia.” Ahmed Mohiy, from Fitness and Fun, said: “I'm really happy to attend this meeting because we need to be well organized in advance as a sector this year. Last year was a trial, but it exceeded all our expectations. We are expecting a bigger and better exhibition this year and look forward to participating in a big way for 2015. We need to see more key players in the government, and important decision makers in the sporting industry more involved as well as the federations, we look forward to working together to achieve this.” Key trends in the sport and fitness sector in Saudi Arabia were identified and discussed, including signs of a move toward healthier lifestyle in the Kingdom, which has facilitated a 16 percent year-on-year growth in the private fitness club industry in the country. Accordingly, the sport & fitness equipment and infrastructure needs over the next 5 years are currently valued at $20 billion, while current imports of vitamins, sportswear and sports equipment stand at just under $1 billion. This means that the level of importation and development of sports equipment, facilities and expertise needs to increase exponentially to meet this demand. A growing trend of new concept fitness training has spurred growth in the refurbishment and re-kit of an increasingly competitive fitness studio market. With sports and leisure infrastructure growth going hand in hand with a hospitality boom in KSA, public and private investments in Saudi Arabia's sports sector registered an increase of 40 percent each year. Such investments have included the privatization of sports clubs as an economic strategy. Furthermore, an emerging sports sector for women has facilitated the requirement for separate and specific sports facilities Haitham Alwakil, Operations Manager for World Gym and Mazen Fitness, highlighted that in developed Fitness markets, Sports and Fitness club operators are very sophisticated in the way with they use customer information. He said a technological advance is need through bringing software firms into Saudi to help analyze customer behavior, enabling fitness club operators to be able to focus on what is most important for customers. Through FIBO and the ISF Exhibition, they can bring these companies to Saudi Arabia. “The continued attention and emphasis on health, fitness and wellbeing in Saudi Arabia, as well as the fantastic response we received from last year's event, has clearly encouraged us to organize the second edition of ISF Saudi” said John Tappin, Show Director of Reed. — SG
