The new fitness tourism

This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Balance your trading strategy by adding futures. CME Group helps you manage risk and capture opportunities in all market environments. Capitalize on around the clock access to highly liquid global futures and options markets across all major asset classes. Visit your online broker and get started. See what adding futures can do for you at CME Group.com/podcast. Derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This is not a recommendation or offer to buy, sell, or obtain any specific investment or service. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Carby Lame was laid off from his job at the factory in Italy. He began posting videos on TikTok and in just a few short years, he's become the platform's most followed user with over 116 million followers. As well as the face of major luxury brands and even a judge on Italy's Got Talent. On good bad billionaire from the BBC World Service, we're exploring the rise of billionaire influencer, Carby Lame. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, I'm Daniel Rosni and this is business daily on the BBC World Service. Today, we're in Lanzarotti, one of the Spanish islands that forms the Canary Islands, less than 130 kilometres off the coast of Morocco in North West Africa. I'm here training with my amateur swim team from London. It's a week long, almost boot camp style itinerary of swim training a day, four hours in the water. Here, there are three Olympic-sized swimming pools. Tennis courts are 400 metre running track and cycling routes that offer stunning views of villages, vineyards and even volcanoes. It's a difficult sector to pin down with a single value. Estimates from research companies and sporting bodies vary, but they all agree on one thing. The growth is rapid. Sports and active tourism include participation-based activities like skiing holidays or training camps like the one here, or traveling somewhere for a golf or a hockey tournament. Broadly speaking, the industry is already worth hundreds of billions of US dollars per year globally, and most forecasts suggest that within the next five to seven years, it could grow substantially, exceeding around a trillion US dollars. We normally, when trying to account for it, estimate that it contributes about 10% of the global tourism spending. 70% of people say they're seeking an adventure and they're going somewhere to have this adventure. People are now making that trip longer and often working during it. When you have the opportunity to do a holiday, you want to be active and suddenly it's a part of it, but you're still wanting to earn that almost in a way. We'll be looking at why this trend is happening, how businesses are changing what they offer, so they can capitalize on the boom, and what impact it has on employees' performances after they train hard while on holiday. Well, I always asked by my swim club, if I wanted to train with other amateur swimmers from around the world, for seven days, it wasn't an immediate set. I love swimming, but that's a lot of swimming. I was told there were other things to do than just be in the water, and as you walk around the resort here on the northwest coast of Lanzarotti, that is true. There's an opportunity to do high rocks, kettlebell training. There are a number of paddle courts. We've covered the rise of that sport before on business daily, if you wanted to queue it up in your podcast feed after this edition. There are also people playing beach volleyball over there in the distance, behind people, some bathing. It's sort of giving me memories of walking around an Olympic village with different sports happening all around me. Michael Moller, who's from Denmark, is the sports director here. So my responsibility is everything what you can say is different from a normal hotel. The sport brings everybody together, and it's not about luxury, it's not about amazing hotel facilities, but our sports facilities are made for the professional, but open for everybody. Often, free generation families, because the thing is also that you don't need to be so much together and still you can do whatever you want to do during the day, and then you meet in the night. So one of the funny stories is that, actually, that less people get divorced after holiday and club presenter, because you do your stuff, and I do my stuff, and we meet in the night, because honestly, a holiday family can be a test of being so close together. So there's a big diversity in the group of people that comes to this place. But is it becoming more mainstream? Are you noticing, in recent years, a different sort of demographic who are choosing to come here that you hadn't seen, perhaps 20 years ago? A few people who find us and come all the way from Australia or from the US, but after the COVID, we have seen that people are much more active than ever before, because we have more than 550 activities every week with an instructor that is included in your stay. And that changed also because a lot of people during the COVID started getting out of the fitness centers and working outside and all this. And I mean, with our climate, working outside is just super ideal. And in terms of your capacity here, 90% is our average capacity all year round, which is quite high. It gives us some luxury issues because sometimes it's difficult to get into the apartments and renovate them. And also, we are not eager to open up new markets because we would disappoint people telling them that come to our place, but yeah, we have no space the next year. Why then has an endless center become a franchise and opened up in Dubai, opened up in other emerging markets? Well, there's a lot of feelings around this place. And we had the same ownership since 1983. The first years during the '80s, this was an economical disaster. And nobody could see the idea of going on an active holiday. Everybody was searching for a degree and a party in Spain. But it was such a unique thing. And he kept saying that just wait one day, it's going to be massive. And up through the '90s, it slowly turned around. And since it's just been growing. So, many times, the question was, do we want to, because of the success, what about doing a club of center two of Rio? For anywhere else, but it's always been coming back to, yeah, but we can't create this unique history and unique family ambience that has been created throughout 40, more than 40 years now. It's my first time on holiday where I have done sport as well. When I was explaining this to my friends and family, that I was coming on a holiday with my swim team and we were going to be very active and we were going to be exercising. Lots of people said to me, that doesn't sound like a holiday. It's a holiday because you feel amazing after sport. And here everybody has the same sweaty tights after a bike tour. And I mean, we all kind of equal. Thank you so much, Michael. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Seeing the growth potential, countries worldwide, and now moving to capitalise. In Africa, Morocco, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa are investing in sports and active tourism. In ways they haven't done before. Recognising that travellers who come to participate in things like marathons can be high-value visitors. My name is Cea Bulele-Nigana. I'm an associate professor at the University of Johannesburg under the School of Tourism and Hospitality. We normally, when trying to account for it, estimate that it contributes about 10% of the global tourism spending, which probably would be anywhere around 600 billion US dollars. Everywhere in the world, sports tourism is popular. And people pay attention to major events. So a lot of these countries are trying to host these major events, to try and position themselves, attract investment. The Deben Comrie's marathon is one of the most famous marathons in the world. The Cape Town cycle tour. There's a lot of these events that are really popular. It's a growing field and it's growing rapidly. I probably could argue that it's the fastest growing sector in tourism in the African space because a lot more people are paying attention to it. It's also important for different economies because it brings about economic impacts. It brings about infrastructure and development that could assist in the long-term development plans of these places. But it's also a social development tool because the youth with the challenges that exist, unemployment, crime, rates and all of that. Involving the youth in sports has been one approach that the governments have taken. So it's a vehicle that many of Africa's countries and nations have really identified to help them advance. As some nations look to improve their offer in this field, others who've been leading the race for years now have fierce competition will hear from New Zealand shortly. Plus, we'll discover how one of the biggest hotel brands in the world is having to adapt to this demand. That's coming up on Business Daily. I'm Daniel Rosley and join me on a swim training camp. This is a sports training resort. And it's unlike any hotel I've been to before with pictures of some previous guests around the hotel bar. World class athletes who've trained here. I can see Great Britain's Olympic winning cyclist Mark Cavendish is on the hall of fame. There's Germany's speed skating Olympic champion. Pian Anna Frizinga Posma and even the King of Spain, who was part of his country sailing team in the 1992 Olympics, has worked out right here alongside families and amateurs who travel from around the world. My name is Giovanni Manfredi, I am from Geneva, Italy, I am 28 years old and I am in environmental consultant. I am Matthew Vulture, I am 32, I am from Toronto, Canada and I am a software engineer. So I was very skeptical because this is not really my type of holidays, but I have been incredibly surprised by the amount of things that I was able to do and the type of holiday that I had. Is that a new thing for you travelling for sport? Oh, I've been all over, so last year we were in Argentina, we were in Lyon, Brussels. Did I have anything like this in Canada? Not that I'm aware of, that's what I want to look up after I leave here is what other options are like this. Do you think you've been convinced to come on a sport, stories and break like this again? Oh, definitely. I think so, like I was always already messaging my partner about this, of like you would love this, we need to do this because we do have these ideas of oh, we want to go somewhere explore, but we also need to figure out, like, make some time for relaxation and I feel like this would be like actually a nice, just like, beach holiday without being bored. Yeah, I tried my activities that I've never done before, like windsurf paddling mainly because they're here and they're available for you and you can try them out. Some of them, I don't know if anyone to do with them with, but you go along. Discovering new hobbies at this resort is encouraged and lots of people have been here before. The hotel says 4 in 10 of its customers return, while this is a specialist sports resort or the global chains are seeing how the industry is going and they're adjusting their facilities. If we go outside, we can jump on a call with Mark Weinstein, who is the chief marketing officer at Hilton. The company has recently done a trend report, which Mark says highlights the shift in the sector. We're now in 141 countries and territories across the world. We'll have upwards of 800 hotels, pushing 900 in China shortly and so we are very much a company that was born in the US but had a vision towards the world. I think what was really interesting was this idea that 72% of travelers want to take time off to pursue their passion, that that's why they're traveling. It's not a destination and then forgot what to do. It's like, there's something that gets me on the road. I've always wanted to be, in your case, an amateur swimmer competing competitively. I've always wanted to run a triathlon. And now 20% of that, one in five travelers are citing music and sport for doing it. When you think about India or China, 60% of them are traveling internationally for sport or music. But I think there have been some major shifts coming out of the pandemic. The combination of bleager, a lot more business trips that then turn into leisure holidays or vice versa. Customers are saying, I can't just give splurge and live my crazy life. If I'm going to be there for three months, now I need to have a routine, a fitness routine. Now I need to sustain my lifestyle. And so coming out of the pandemic, you saw record levels of people traveling. So because of this change in customer habits or expectation, have you had to change any of your hotels in order to get people to book? You have people traveling to elevate. We do have hotels that are putting paddle in place. We do have hotels that now are building quite large fitness facilities and allow the use of basketball courts or tennis courts. In some ways, that's always been there in the luxury segments. You think about a great resort. You picture tennis courts. Maybe now it's pickleball or a paddle. What has become more pervasive that was moving down into all of our brands, that the price point is not the determinant, the determinant for wanting wellness and fitness routines. It's now available in all of our brands, whether that's a Peloton bike in your room, whether that's the calm app on the in-room TV experience so you can fall asleep more thoughtfully, fun stuff like Landon Norris doing a one hour ASMR, you know, falling asleep to the sounds of F1 or, you know, having access to great physical equipment. These changes at hotels are just one chapter of a much bigger story. In the world, travelers are no longer just looking for a place to relax. One country that's long understood this is New Zealand, famous for its active and adventure tourism from hiking and mountain biking to bungee jumping and whitewater rafting. Businesses there recognized early on that this trend reflects a broader long term change in how people experience tourism, fitness and adventure. My name is Susan Hogi McKenzie, I'm an associate professor in the Department of Tourism at the University of Otago School of Business. I don't think it's a flash in the pan. There's been a shift in terms of travel and tourism is leisure and something that we do for a week at a time that's separate from everyday life to just get away and relax. So instead of saying I just say to go decompress for a week and drink cocktails, what some people would still do, oftentimes we're doing it to engage in things that reaffirm our sense of ourselves as someone who's adventurous or is seeking new experiences or to reaffirm something like, oh, I'm actually really into my mountain biking. The other thing that's driving that is the ability to work much more flexibly. So with this leisure term or work and leisure where we combine it is probably driving those changes in how we practice. Even if you look at the shift in society from traditional sports that used to dominate to now the proliferation of different sorts of alternative sports, individualistic sports, people wanting to move towards those more flexible, maybe more individualistic nature-based sports. And I don't think that's a short term trend. Back on the pool side, my week of swim camp is over and I've discovered muscles I didn't even know I had could hurt after four hours a day in the water. And I've also learned that in part of a global trend, there are people just like me all over the world who are paying into what's described as the fastest growing tourism sector. They hadn't actually realized I was contributing to an industry simply because of my hobby outside of work. So let's get a quick word before we go with the head swim coach this week who has the patience of a saint. My name is Hannah Saltz and I'm from the U.S. And how many times have you been here? I've been here three times, two years as a swimmer and then this year I've been able to come as a coach for the after swim swim team. Life is so busy and so chaotic and you're always on the go. That as a swimmer you're able to just come for a week and focus on the swimming and then relax and kind of do you do have that focus of swimming and you have the training but then you're able to just kind of turn your brain off and you get to relax from your chaotic life in a way that allows you almost to have like more of a focus when you are doing your trainings. Why do you think more people are coming to places like this they're not sunbathing they're doing sports? I think a lot of people are realizing that like during nine to five and during work you're sat in one position at your desk all day and so when you have the opportunity to do a holiday you want to be active and sun lounging as a part of it but you're still you're wanting to like earn that almost in a way and kind of move your body and a lot of I think research is coming out that if we continue to be active as we get older we're able to have healthier lives as we age. And where else have you been that's like this before? Been to a couple of training camps when I was a kid and university in the US and it's not the same in terms of like this type of resort but it is you go for a week and you focus on pool swimming you have two practices a day and it's just a wonderful opportunity that I'm really happy to have now as an adult so never thought I would again. It's of like financing it you have to pay for yourself to come to these trips. Yes you do so as an adult you have to kind of budget and figure out which ones you want to do but a lot of them I end up visiting I've been to like three different countries that I've never been to before because there are a couple of international meets that are mainland Europe and then all over the world actually. Thanks for listening to this episode of Business Daily from the BBC World Service. It was produced and presented by Daniel Rosley. Once you're trading strategy by adding futures CME Group helps you manage risk and capture opportunities in all market environments capitalize on around the clock access to highly liquid global futures and options markets across all major asset classes visit your online broker and get started. See what adding futures can do for you at CME Group dot com forward slash podcast derivatives are not suitable for all investors and involve the risk of losing more than the amount originally deposited and any profit you might have made. This is not a recommendation or offer to buy sell or obtain any specific investment or service.