Gym, hotel and tour operators say they'll take the hit in their stride

Singapore

WHILE most gym operators The Business Times spoke with were sanguine about being forced to shutter again in view of rising Covid-19 numbers, the president of the newly formed Singapore Fitness Alliance said the directive feels like the industry is being singled out.

The multi-ministry taskforce on Covid-19 announced on Tuesday a slew of tightened community measures, after 60 new cases were identified in the community in the past week, including numerous cases of the more transmissible variants of the virus.

Among the measures unveiled was one requiring all indoor gymnasiums and indoor fitness or health studios to be closed from May 8-30.

Sean Tan, who is also the director of True Group, described the conclusion reached by the government - that gyms are high-risk - as "puzzling".

"There have been more than six million visits to gyms and studios in the past eight months, with only five cases of infected persons who were asymptomatic having visited gyms and studios, and there have been zero cases of spreads from gyms and studios," he said. "We are very much part of the healthcare continuum, and are therefore surprised to have been the only industry singled out for shutdown."

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He added: "It is disappointing that the fitness and wellness industry wasn't consulted before the new measures were announced. We could have proposed less drastic, but equally effective measures, such as the reduction in capacity in gyms and studios, as well as increasing safe-distancing measures. This would enable fitness and wellness businesses to stay open, and for more people to work out and stay fit and healthy."

Other gym operators were more understanding. Oompf! Fitness founder and chief executive officer Agnes Liew said: "We don't know how things will develop, but we're well-prepared ... Thankfully (we have started rolling out) vaccinations, unlike last year, when everyone was just confused and frightened."

She said some clients had already said they would switch to online training for the next three weeks.

Brad Robinson, chief executive of Ritual Gym, said the group will support clients' keep-fit efforts with its Ritual FIT App, which was developed last year during the "circuit breaker". The app will also be made free to the public for the month of May.

Businesses in the hospitality and tourism industry also took the latest announcement in their stride.

Hotels expect to feel the impact on the events and F&B end.

Said Zhang Jiahao, associate director for CBRE Hotels, Asia-Pacific: "It's still hard to ascertain the impact now, but we should remember that the proportion of staycation business for hotels is not huge in the first place.

"Ultimately, Singapore hotels are still dependent on international tourism. The restrictions on events and weddings might, however, impact the larger hotels (by room count) as they tend to focus on the events business to sell a large number of their rooms and to drive up their banquet and conference business."

Tour operators will have the maximum group size cut to 20 attendees from 50 now. And within these groups, attendees have to keep to group sizes of five, instead of eight currently.

Simon Er, deputy president at the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (Natas) said he does not expect the reduced cap from 50 to 20 to hit most tours, given that most local tours average 15 to 20 persons each.

That said, the reduction of group sizes from eight to five is expected to weigh on operational costs, he said, because more tour guides will be needed to maintain safe-distancing.

Sim Cher Huey, founder of Kayak Asia, echoed this point, but added that the measures can potentially be "disruptive", especially if operators had previously geared up their manpower to take a larger number of guests.

Jason Loe, founder of Tribe, said he started receiving cancellations last Friday, following the issuance of guidelines to limit social gatherings to two a day.

"I anticipate tomorrow to be a day of cancellations," he said ruefully.

"Some people will deem (the measures) to be an over-reaction but to me, the government is being smart ... It may seem draconian based on a lack of a significant spike in numbers, but I appreciate the pre-emptive strike. Nobody can withstand another circuit breaker."

READ MORE:

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• Clearer rules on B2B events welcomed; could tamp down rising anxiety
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• Tighter Covid-19 curbs could hit retail, office Reits again