Ys, Hard Hit by Pandemic, See Rapid Return of Members

The pandemic closures of 2020 had a dramatic effect on memberships at recreation, sports and fitness facilities across thegraph country. According to the 2022 State of the Industry Report, 60.5% of all respondents saw lower usage of their facilities in 2020 than in 2021, while 18% said usage remained the same and 21.5% reported an increase. In 2021, the numbers largely flipped, with 23.9% reporting a decrease, 20.3% reporting no change and 55.8% reporting an increase. And in 2022, 63.2% of all respondents said the number of people using their facilities increased, while just 7.6% reported a decrease.

Ys were hard hit by the pandemic, with just 5.3% of respondents reporting an increase in 2020. They were followed by health clubs, 5.6% of whom reported an increase. Parks were more likely than the average respondents to see increasing usage in 2020, though less than three in 10 (29.4%) said usage increased at their facilities that year.

In 2021, Ys and health clubs led the way on usage of their facilities, with 69.6% of the respondents in each cohort reporting an increase in usage. And in 2022, more than three-quarters (77.8%) of Y respondents said they expected usage of their facilities to increase.

Stay tuned for the June issue of Recreation Management, where we’ll see how the reported numbers for 2022 compare with last year’s expectations.

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