IB RP Fitness Centers in Prague Tamara

Prague College
Fitness Centers in Prague

Fitness Centers in Prague, how to be successful
Ayrapetova Tamara
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Abstract
This report discusses one of the biggest problems in Prague area (for people who
want to be healthy) and this problem is to find a good, satisfying fitness center.
My report will be wholly devoted into the problem.
As well as that it analyzes all the possible choices for the customers of fitness
centers.
This reports main idea is to investigate everything needed to set up a successful
Fitness Center (FC) in Prague. To do so I need to find out all the factors which
may put an influence on the decision-making process of the customers. These
factors can be very basic like the location of the fitness center or can be more
specific like services which are expected from it.
The second thing which is considered to one of the most important goals of this
report is to create a business plan for a new fitness center.
What I have investigated was not that surprising for me personally as the
questioned people were outlining all the basic things the fitness centers should
have like swimming pool, lockers, free towels to use, massage and all other
basic services they would expect from the fitness center.
The analysis part of this report will be divided into 4 parts. Firstly the data will be
divided into two groups which are:
- Group 1 People who use fitness centers
- Group 2 People who doesn’t
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The second division is as well into two groups which are:
- People who are foreigners
- People who are citizens
There are other divisions of the data analysis which are in findings part of the
report and they are as following:
Section 1 people who do use fitness centers
o Questionnaires
o Interviews
Section 2 people who doesn’t use fitness centers
This division was done because it is important to know exactly what the
different nationalities expect from the fitness centers because the
expectations might be different. The division into 2 sections was done as it is
easier for the reader to see the difference between the answers.
This report will contain pie charts and histograms which show the data
analysis in an easy way.
To do so I will need to investigate a lot of information which would support
my analysis. To investigate this information I used mainly to methods:
1. Questionnaires
2. Interviews
Both of the methods are very basic and known by people. This makes it
easier for them to deal with it. These methods give data in a way which is
easy to analyze.
3
Questionnaires were given out in Prague College and in Radio Free Europe.
27 questionnaires were received back and analyzed.
The interviews were taken in Prague College from the people who are
visiting the fitness centers very often. I have collected 4 interviews.
After all the analyzing the processes I went through my conclusions were as
following. The customer service in Fitness centers of Prague generally is not of
the high level however it still satisfies the customers. There are a number of
fitness centers which are of the high level like World Class, BBC fitness center,
Cybex club etc. which provide high level of customer service and services in
general. In these fitness centers the majority of the people are foreigners and
the prices as well as the quality of the services are high.
To set up a good and successful fitness center in Prague you will need to
compete not with the fitness centers which are in Prague but mainly with the
standards of living of Czech people and their requirements to the FCs. Of
course you will still face competition between the FCs but some of the FCs
will be out of the competition or we can say they will be in the group where it
is hard to get and they don’t really compete with the local fitness centers or
small gyms they compete between each other. This group most of the times
includes all international FCs and chains of FCs all over the world.
With the evidence to all investigated information and all of the analysis I can
conclude that to set up a new fitness center in Prague is really problematic
as there is a lot of local gyms and International FCs chains however if there is
a will then there should be knowledgeable professionals who know Czech
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culture, needs, expectations and whole the range of other factors which
might put any influence.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dave Gannon lecturer of Prague College who was guiding
me through the whole process and providing help and instructions on how to
improve my work. Thank you a lot for giving interview.
I would like to thank Inara Kyazimova for her help in distributing the
questionnaires in Radio Free Europe and for sharing her ideas and giving
advices.
I would like to thank Bob Michel for helping me in distributing the questionnaires
and giving interview.
I would like to thank all the students of Prague College who took part in the
project by answering my questionnaires and giving interviews.
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Content page
Cover page – 1p
Abstract – p.2-3
Acknowledgement- p. 4
Background-p 10-13
Aims and Objectives- p14
Methodology- p. 15-25
! Primary Research- p. 15-24
! Secondary Research- p. 25
Findings- p. 26
Questionnaires
Introduction- p 26-27
Section 1- p 28-46
Section 2- p 47-51
Interview – p 52-57
Introduction – p 52
Analysis- p 53-57
Introduction
7
Conclusion- p 58-63
Recommendations- p 64-68
References- p 69-71
Appendix- p 71 and over
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Section 1
! Chart1- p 28
! Char2 –p 29-3-
! Chart3-p 31
o Chart a-p 32
o Chart b-p 33
o Chart c-p 34
o Chart d-p 35
! Chart 4 a-p 36
! Chart 4 b-p 37
! Chart 4 c-p 38
! Chart 4 d-p 39
! Chart5-p 40
! Chart 6-p 41
! Chart7-p 42
! Chart 8-p 43
! Chart 9-p 44
! Chart10-p 45
! Chart11-p 46
Section 2
! Chart 1 Section2-p 47-48
! Chart2 Section2-p 49
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Background
Fitness centers play nearly one the most essential roles in lives of healthy people
and those who want to be healthy and fit. The problem of finding the right
fitness center with the satisfying prices and facilities follows a lot of people
nowadays. To understand what people need and what they want and in what
prices they a able to use this offers is very essential for any business doesn’t
matter if it is a fitness center or a bar offering drinks.
To investigate this it is very useful to know what are the services and the costs
provided by already existing fitness centers. It is good to take the most famous
and compare them to some fitness centers which are not that popular. By this
we can find out the differences between them and possibly these differences
might be the reason why they are so popular or are not.
There are several Sport Centers in Prague which are quite successful in this type
of business. World Class, World Class Health Academy, Cybex Gym, Balance
club Brumlovka, Hit Fitness, BBC – Fitness. To find out how they reached the
success in Prague I will look at the history and the facilities they provide to their
customers.
World Class
World Class is a chain of health and fitness centers all over the world. It provides
high quality sport services. In Prague it’s located in the center “Vaclavske
Namesti”. Services of all kinds are provided in this sport center:
-massage,
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-yoga,
-swimming pull,
-solarium.
World Class has 3 gyms in the center of Prague. Fitness Center Wenceslas
Square: Václavské nám.22, Praha 1, +420 234 699 100. World Class at the Park: V
Parku 2308/8, +420 272 912 530. The official website of the company is-
http://www.worldclass.cz/. (World Class Fitness)
World Class Health Academy
World Class Health Academy is included in chain of world class fitness centers. It
is located in center of Prague. World Class Health Academy: V Celnici 10, Praha
1, +420 221 033 033. The gym is inside the Hotel Marriott. This fitness center is
considered as one of the most luxurious fitness centers down town. The official
website of this sport center is http://www.worldclass.cz/. (World Class Health
Academy).
Cybex Gym
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spa. It is inside the Hilton Hotel. The design of this sport center is made with the
latest design trends. They provide group classes and individual classes as well.
The Cybex Gym has only one gym in Prague zone. (Cybex Gym)
Balance club Brumlovka.
This Balance Club or in other words sport center is located in the BB Centrum (BB
>+,)(;?6%1;#-/#,:%@ABCDEFGH%FI$J'K#-'L.%MN5599O<%!"#$%*-;1%'PP+($%/#PP+(+,)%
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kinds of services including such as spinning, cardio, aerobics and aqua zone
with 25m swimming pool. There is only one Balance club gym in Prague. The
official website of the Club is: http://www.balanceclub.cz/en/sluzby. (Balance
Club Brumlovka)
Hit Fitness
Located on Flora Centrum (Chrudimská 2b 130 00 Praha 3 tel.: 267 311 447). This
fitness center offers to its customers wide range of services. In the reception area
you can get café and tea services for free. The official website of this fitness
center is- http://hitfit.cz/ . ( Hit Fitness )
BBC – Fitness
This fitness center has number of gyms around Prague. One gym is on
Vinohradská 190, Praha 3 and the benefit of it is that it is opened nonstop. They
have a bar and whole range of equipment which waits for customers all the
time. This gym provides all the activities needed (e.g. aerobics, solarium, training
of boxing, cycling, floating and so on…). Another gym is on Švehlova 1391/32,
Praha 10, Park Hostivar. It provides daily services from 7:00-24:00. They offer all
kind of services besides boxing and floating. The gym at Chodov Centrum is
opened:
Monday-Friday from 7:00-23:00
Sat-Sun from 8:00-23:00
Gyms on Nám, Na Stráži 1 and Vršovická 1 offer whole range of activities
including box and other unusual activities and they are opened at the same
time.
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Mon-Fr: 6.00 - 24.00
Sun-Sat: 9.00 - 24.00
The gyms on Nám. I. P. Pavlova 3 and Masná 5 don’t offer all range of services.
They provide their visitors only solarium. (BBC-Fitness).
Fitness centers which are mentioned above are considered as the best health
and wellness fitness centers in Prague. The services they provide are of the
highest quality and they all located near to the Prague Center. Most of the
gyms of this sport centers are inside the Hotels.
General information about all Fitness centers mentioned is available at:
(http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers) (2008) (Accessed: 25 April
2010).
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Aims and objectives

Aims
The main aim of this project is to get familiar with the Fitness market in Prague.
However to investigate and for true understanding of the market we need to
consider all of the factors which put influence on it.
Basically this report will try to investigate and give a reason to why the customer
chooses the specific Fitness center and what the owners should do to attract
this customer and keep the loyal.
Objectives:
The objectives of this report are to investigate the topics below:
- What do foreigners and PC students require of such a facility?
- Are people satisfied with the CS provided now by existing companies?
- Does the location of the sport center play a big role for the customers and
gives a big impact on attendance?
- The competitors’ ideas. What they provide.
- Analysis of data and why specific sport center is successful or not
The last aim of the investigation is to create a Business Proposal.
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Methodology
Primary Research
The methods used in the primary research are very effective and most of my
conclusions and recommendations are based on my primary research and the
primary data collected. The primary research involves collecting the data which
haven’t existed before.
In order to get the information needed to answer to the questions I have set to
myself I need to choose the best methods to investigate the information which
will be used. Data collected is divided into primary and secondary (by the
sources used).
The target/goal of my project is to investigate what foreign people expect from
sport or fitness centers in Prague and my target audience is quite large as
people of different age groups use fitness centers so to target them correctly I
needed to use whole range of methods.
By Primary research I investigated the main information of my project which will
then help me to draw conclusions and recommendations. Secondary research
will support my investigation and help me to make sure that my observations are
correct as well as that this secondary research helps me to find information
about the centers and about what media and methods are better to use to
target the audience.
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Primary data
As it has already been mentioned above primary research supplied me with the
most important data which I then used to analyze the matter (issue) and this
information then will help me to draw a business plan.
Method 1 Questionnaires
The questionnaires are more objective and they are easier to analyze. This type
of collecting of data is quite quick.
Another advantage of this method is that this quickness goes together with
the fact that big portion of people can be questioned at once. John (2008)
provided information about the advantage of questionnaires.
Milne Centre for CBL in Land Use and Environmental Sciences,
Aberdeen University.)
To use questionnaire is the way cheaper than to get face-to-face interview.
By this method I will probably target about 20-30 people. This amount will be
enough for me to analyze the situation correctly and it won’t be hard for
me to get 20 people to answer to them. The questionnaires will be
designed in the specific website and then it will be placed at social
software like Facebook or sent by email personally.
As well as that they were handed out in PC by me personally and with the
help of the lecturers. The questionnaires were handed out in Radio Free
Europe but the amount of the questionnaires was quite narrow about 4. All
in all I have questioned 27 people.
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In the questionnaires there is 9 questions 8 of them are multiple choice.
There are 2 sections in the questionnaire. First section is for people currently
using fitness centers and the Second section is for people who are not using
them recently but still are potential users in the future.
The questions are as following:
1) Where are you from?
1. I need to know if the person answering to the questionnaire is foreigner or
Czech by knowing this I can separate the data into 2 group foreigners and
Czech. This will help me to analyze the data more efficiently and effectively.
2) How often are you visiting Fitness Centers?
! . Everyday
! . Every week
! . Every month
! . 3month-6 month
! . Never (please answer to the questions in the Section2)
2. For my research it is important to know what people expect from the F.C.
Furthermore I will divide this data into 2 groups again. One group will be the
people who visit F.C and another who doesn’t this will help me to make the
correct conclusion about what’s needed in the F.C and how the customers
view on the F.C changes after using it for a long time.
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3) If you would choose FC which one it would be?
! . World Class
! . World Class Academy
! . BBC Fitness Center
! . Cybex Gym
! . Balance club Brumlovka
! . Hit fitness
! . Your local gym
! . Other
3. This question will tell how many people will choose the FC I’m talking about
and how many will stay with their local gym. Plus it will show the most popular
FC from the list of FC which were mentioned.
4) What facilities are you expecting for the Fitness Centers? ( more than one
answer is possible)
! . Swimming Pool
! . Solarium
! . Aerobics
! . Massage
! . Individual trainings
! . Yoga
4. By this question I will find out what facilities are needed for F.C this is important
for understanding why are some FCs(Fitness Centers) popular and others are
not.
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5) What services you expect to receive in Fitness Centers?
! . Free tea, coffee, water

! . Bar
! . Free towels to use
! . Free shower gels, creams, shampoos
! . Free bottles to put water in
! . Lockers
! . Full time lockers
! . Free doctor
! . Free trainer
5. By this question I will find out the services which people expect to have in
F.C this is important for understanding why are some FCs popular and others
are not.
6) Does your local gym fulfill your needs?
! . Yes
! . No
6. This question will help me to find out how many people will travel to the F.C
even if it is far away from them.
7) If the FC would meet all your needs and wants would you travel far to go
there?
! . Yes
! . No
7. This question will tell me does the location of the FC really matter for
people.
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8) Do you expect FC work on Saturdays and Sundays full time?
! . Yes
! . No
8. This q. will help to understand basic expectations of the customers about the
timetable of the FC.
9) When are you visiting FC?
! . Morning
! . Afternoon
! . Evening
! . Night
o Working days
o Weekends
9. This q. will provide me with data about the most popular time for people to go
to the F.C.
Section 2
1. Why are you not visiting F.C?

! Prefer exercising outside in the park
! Don’t have time
! Other
This question identifies the possible reasons to why some don’t use fitness
centers. From this we can see the percentage of people who can be potential
customers of fitness centers and people who never will use it.
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2. What facilities are you expecting for the Fitness Centers? ( more
than one answer is possible)
! . Swimming Pool
! . Solarium
! . Aerobics
! . Massage
! . Individual trainings
! . Yoga
For the justification see question 4.
3. What services you expect to receive in Fitness Centers?
! . Free tea, coffee, water
! . Bar
! . Free towels to use
! . Free shower gels, creams, shampoos
! . Free bottles to put water in
! . Lockers
! . Full time lockers
! . Free doctor
! . Free trainer
For justification see question 5

4. Do you expect FC work on Saturdays and Sundays full time?
! . Yes
! . No
For the justification see question 6
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Method 2 Face-to-face interviews
This method is old but still is considered as the most effective. It is most
widely used and is great method for any topic.
One of the advantages of this method is that by face-to-face
communication the person collecting the information has the way bigger
chance to obtain more data. It is assumed by the experts that people don’t
get bored by the interviews as much as by survey.
I have interviewed students of PC and ask them a number of questions
which will be more specific and personal than the questions in the surveys
and questionnaires. This way I will collect more specialized and detailed
data of what people expect and what they had experienced already.
I have interviewed 3 people. The questions were as following:
Interview
1. What fitness centers are you visiting?
This question was asked to understand where exactly the person was visiting
fitness center and to identify the persons’ standards.
2. Which fitness centers did you try to go to?
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This question will show me the different fitness centers the person was going to
and then additionally will give a possibility to compare these fitness centers to
each other to see the differences
3. Why did you choose this specific fitness center?
This question will determine the problems of some fitness centers which will help
me to draw my conclusions and recommendations to the fitness centers
4. How many foreigners are using the fitness center you go to?
This question is to understand which types of fitness centers are mostly used by
foreigners and see the quality of the services they provide.
5. Is the customer service good?
This question will help me to put all parts together I will see how many foreign
people are using the fitness centers and then look if the customer service is
good there and this will tell me if the foreign customers expect more from the
fitness centers than the Czech customers.
6. Does the location of the fitness center matters for you?
This question will add more information in wherever the location matters for
the people or not.

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7. What specific services you would like to have in F.C?
This question will give me a list of services people need and want from the FC
and plus will help to identify the standards of the quality people expect to
receive from the FC in Prague.
8. What other factors put an influence on your choice of the fitness center?
This question might help me to see some other factors which might put
influence on the customers’ decision.
Date: 4.06.10 Signature:
(The collected information was recorded by me in the written form and was
signed by the interviewee.)
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Secondary research
This type of research mainly supported me with how correct was my primary
data. People can sometimes tell wrong information in these situation
secondary data will help me to understand and analyze the issue in the
right way.
Furthermore this research will help me to find out more about the fitness
centers and their physical features like vehicles and number of gyms.
This research will supply me with some statistics like what places or locations
are the most popular for fitness centers and why it is like this. It will provide
me with costs of some basic services and then average price will be found
to investigate which of the fitness centers have higher prices than others.
This research of course includes all data investigated from the secondary
resources like Internet, books, magazines and so on.
By following type of the research I have investigated information for
Background and partly for my methodology.
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Findings
Introduction
The findings of this report will be divided into two major parts and two extra parts
inside them. Two major parts are:
Questionnaires
Interviews
This division was made as both of the methods are differently analyzed and
separate conclusions will be drawn and then compared to each other.
In the questionnaire analysis one can find another division into 2 parts:
Section 1
Section 2
This was done as the research was divided into two parts and the analysis will
need to be divided as well.
Section 1 stands for the first part of the questionnaire and is made for
people who visits FC and their answers to the questions.
Section 2 stands for part of the questionnaire which contains questions for
people who do not use FC but still are potential customers in the future.
Both of the sections will be analyzed separately and then compared to each
other. This will give an understanding of how people opinions about the FC
change when they use FC and when they don’t. The analysis of the Section 2
will give an opportunity for the FC to find out how to attract new customers to
their market.
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In the questionnaire part one can see that some questions will be divided into
the nationality differences and then the conclusion will be drawn as to which of
the nationalities expect more from the FC then others and are more stricter in
choosing it.
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Questionnaires
Section 1
Chart1
In the chart 1 one can see the number of people who has done the
questionnaire for me. On the X axis one can see different nationalities which
were taking part in the poll. On the Y axis one can see a number of people from
each nationality taking part in poll.
Number of people using FC

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12
10
Number of people
Different nationalities
As it is shown on the graph above the majority of the questioned people are
foreigners. Most of them are Vietnamese. This information is important because it
will help me to identify different needs and wants of different nationalities. It will
help me to compare wants and needs of Czech people and foreign people.
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Chart2
In the chart2 one can see

ee a number of people using the FC in the different
centers. On the X axis one can see how often one can use the fitness centers.
There are 5 possibilities- every day, every week, every month, every 3 months
months- 6
months and never. On th

the Y axis one can see a number of people voting for a
specific option.
Number of people visiting F.C

12
10
Num`ber of people
0
Every day Every week Every month 3 month- Never
6month
How often
As one can see from the chart 39% of the people are using the FC every week,
18% every month and 11% 3 months-

months 6 month and 32 % never. This chart can
help to understand how many people are using

using the fitness centers and what
they expect from them and plus we will know how many people are not visiting
visiting.
The majority of the people are using it every week followed by the group of
people who do use fitness centers at all and then goes group of people who
uses it at least every month. From this we can observe following that Prague is a
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good place to start a fitness center as the majority of the people are concerned
about their health and body.
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Chart 3
Chart 3 represents the data collected from the question number 2. It gives the
information about how often people use FC. The information is divided into 4
graphs in the relation to the frequency of the visits:
Every week
Every month
Every 3 month- 6 month
Never
There is no chart on the “everyday” choice as no one chose it.
The graphs will show not only how many people vote for a specific option
but will show the nationalities of this people.
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Chart a
Chart a shows a number of people who visit FC every week with the relation to
the nationalities of the people. On the X axis one can see different countries
from which people were taking part in the poll. On the Y axis one can see the
number of people voting for every week option.
Use FC every week

6
4
Number of people
0
Russia Czech Mexico Britain Vietnam Kazakhstan
Countries
As one can see from the graph above Vietnamese are the most frequent users
of FC followed by Russians.
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Chart b
Chart b shows a number of people visiting FC every month and with the
reference to their nationalities. On the X axis one can see different nationalities
which took part in the poll. On the Y axis one can see a number of people who
voted chose every month option.
Every month
1.2
1
Number of people
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
USA Ukrain Czech Vietnam
Nationalities
As one can see from the graph above there is equal amount of people visiting
FC every month and these are people from Ukraine, USA, Czech and Vietnam.
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Chart c
Chart c shows a number of people who prefer using fitness centers every 3
month- 6 month, divided into 2 areas, those people who are from Croatia and
those who are from Vietnam, the figures are represented in percentage.
Every 3 month- 6 month

Croatia Vietnam
33%
67%
As one can see from the graph above there is 67% of people are from Croatia.
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Chart d
Chart d shows number of people who never visit fitness centers, the data is
divided in relation to the nationalities of those people. On the X axis one can
see different countries people came from. On the Y axis one can see a number
of people who chose the option “never” in relation to their nationality.
Never using FC
4.5
3.5
3
Number of people
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
Uzbekistan Czech Switzerland Serbia Kazakhstan Vietnam
Countries
As one can see from the graph above the widest group is Vietnamese. From this
we can assume that most of the Vietnamese people don’t visit fitness centers.
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Chart 4 a
Chart 4 a represents a number of people who were voting for a specific fitness
center in Prague area. On the X axis one can see different fitness centers
located in Prague area. On the Y axis one can see a number of people voting
for the specific option.
If you would choose FC which one it would

be?
8
6
Number of people
0
. World . World . BBC . Cybex . Balance . Hit fitness . Your local . Other
Class Class Fitness Gym club gym
Academy Center Brumlovka
Different FC
As can be seen from the graph above the majority of the people would choose
BBC Fitness Center followed by the World Class and Balance Club Brumlovka.
From this one can observe that BBC fitness center, World Class and Balance
Club Brumlovka have something which attracts people more than other fitness
centers mentioned above plus these are the most popular fitness centers.
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Chart 4 b
Chart 4 b represents a number of people using World Class in relation to their
nationalities. On the X axis one can see different countries from which people
chose this option. On the Y axis one can see a number of people who chose
World Class.
World Class
1.2
1
Number of people
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Czech Vietnam kazakhstan Russia Croatia Mexico USA
Countries
As one can see from the graph above there are different nationalities using
World Class and the number of people is equal in each nationality group.
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Chart 4 c
Chart 4 c represents a number of people who visits local gyms, divided into 3
areas, those from Vietnam, those from Kazakhstan and those from Russia. All the
figures are represented in percentages.
Local Gyms
Vietnam Kazakhstan Russia
17%
16%
67%
As one can see from the graph above the biggest grouping is the Vietnamese
nationality group which is 67% followed by Russian 17%.
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Chart 4 d
Chart 4d represents a number of people (in percentage) who uses BBC fitness
center, divided into 3 areas, those who are from Vietnam, those who are from
Czech R. and those who are from Mexico.
BBC FC
Czech Vietnam Mexico
14% 14%
72%
As one can see from the graph the biggest group is Vietnamese nationality
group which is 72% followed by two equal nationality groups.
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Chart 5
Chart 5 shows the number of people who were voting for different facilities they
can receive or they expect from the fitness centers. On the X axis one can see
different facilities. On the Y axis one can see a number of people who chose the
specific option.
What facilities are you expecting from FC?

14
12
12
10
10 9
number of people
6 5
4 3 3
0
Swimming Pool . Solarium . Aerobics . Massage Yoga Individual
Trainings
Facilities provided by the FC
As one can see from the graph above the most popular facility which was
voted by the majority of the people id individual training followed by the
swimming pool and then yoga.
From this one can assume that fitness centers must have individual trainers
providing trainings on regular bases and a possibility for customers to try the
training first for free.
Additionally from the graph one can see that swimming pool is needed as well.
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Chart 6
Chart 6 represents data collected from the following question-“What services do
you expect to receive from fitness center?” On the X axis one can see different
services provided by different fitness centers. On the Y axis one can see a
number of people who chose a specific option.
What services do you expect to receive from FC?

10
9
8
Number of people
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
services
As one can see from the graph above the services which should be certainly
provided by the fitness center are- Free towels to use, followed by the lockers
and the Bar.
These services were voted for 17%, 15% and 12% (percentage is given in order).
41
Chart 7
Chart 7 shows the responses from the question- “Does your local gym full fill your
needs?” – The figures are represented in percentages.
Does your local gym fullfil your needs?
42%
yes
no
58%
As one can see from the graph the majority of the people said “yes” and only
42% percent said “no”.
From this graph one can assume that the services provided in Prague area are
satisfying most of the users.
42
Chart 8
Chart 8 shows responses from the following question- ‘If the FC would meet all
the needs and wants would you travel far? - The figures are represented in
percentage.
if the FC would meet all your needs and wants

would you travel far?
yes no
50% 50%
As one can see from the graph the responses from the question above are half
a half. Taking this as evidence one can assume that there is a big chance that
if you open a FC in the place which is hard to get to or is unknown there is still a
percentage of people who will travel to use the FC but only if the FC is
something more than what they need, it provide something that they want.
43
Chart 9
Chart 9 shows the responses collected on the following question-‘Do you expect
FC work on Saturdays and Sundays full time?’- The figures are represented in
percentages.
Do you expect FC work on Saturdays and

Sundays full time?
no
0%
yes
100%
As one can observe from the graph above all of the questioned people said
“yes” to the sated question.
With the evidence to this graph one can assume that FC should have this as a
rule because a lot of people are willing to use FC but the problem is that they
don’t have time in working days and they do not want to spend their day on FC,
ehat they want is to go there after 6 o’clock or even later.
From this analysis FC can get a big benefit and by changing their timetable
attract more customers in.
44
Chart 10
Chart 10 represents the number of people using FC in different time intervals. On
the X axis one can see the options given which are- morning, afternoon,
evening and night. On the Y axis one can see a number of people voting for a
specific option.
When are you visiting FC?

16
14
12
Number of people
10
0
Morning Afternoon Evening Night
Tima scale
As one can see from the graph most of the people prefer to visit fitness centers
in the evenings and in the mornings.
With the evidence from the above graph one can consider it to be really
important to know when people are most likely to visit FC. This will tell when staff
should be prepared to the traffic and how to structure the timetable of the FC
so that it suits not only FC itself but the customer as well because as we can see
from above people prefer using FC in the evening and some of the FC are
closing around 8 which basically means that they lose a lot of customer
because of this.
45
Chart 11
Chart 11 shows a number of people visiting fitness centers on Working days and
Weekends. On X axis one can see two options from which the questioned could
choose- weekends and working days. On Y axis one can see a number of
people voting for a one of the options.
When are you visiting FC?

12
10
8
Number of People
0
Working Days Weekends
As one can see from the graph above most of the people are using fitness
centers in working days.
With the evidence from above one can assume that fitness centers will be used
by people more in the working days.
46
Section 2 Analysis
Chart 1
Chart 1 shows a number of people who are not visiting fitness centers because
of the different reasons. In this graph there are free areas which are:
! Don’t have time to visit FC
! Prefer exercising outside in the park
! Other
Why are you not visiting FC?

Don't have time Prefer exercising outside in the park other
37%
50%
13%
As one can see from the graph above 37% from the questioned said that they
don’t have time, 13% said that they prefer practice outside and 50% mentioned
other reasons.
From this one can assume that fitness centers have an opportunity to find out
what this 50% don’t like in already existing fitness centers and attract them as
only 37% of people don’t have time and it is not possible to target them. The
47
same with the people who chose the answer that they prefer exercising outside
and it will be hard to make then change their mind.
48
Chart 2
Chart 2 shows a number of facilities use by different number of people. On the
axis “x” one can see different facilities provided by the fitness centers in general.
On the Y axis one can see a number of people who voted for a specific facility.
What facilities do you expect from the FC?

7
5
Number of people
0
swimming pool solarium aerobics massage individual yoga
training
Facilities
As one can see from the graph above the most popular facilities are swimming
pool and individual trainings followed by massage.
With the evidence to the graph above one can assume that fitness center
needs to have as a first need a swimming pool, individual training and then I
would recommend to have massage service offered as well.
49
Chart 3
Chart 3 represents data collected from the following question- what services do
you expect from the fitness center?
What services do you expect to receive from FC?

10
9
8
Number of peple
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
services
As one can see from the graph the most popular service was “free towels to
use” which were followed by the lockers and Bar.
Following from this one can assume this to be an important investigation as it is
very essential and useful for any business, including fitness centers, to know what
are the expectations of those who are not yet using the business but can be
potential customers in the future. This knowledge can even help to attract those
customers who are already using fitness centers but are missing the same
services as well.
50
Chart 4
Chart 4 represents a number of people who do think that fitness center must
work on Saturdays and Sundays full time and the ones who doesn’t think it is
necessary.
Do you expect FC work in Saturdays and

Sundays full time?
8
6
Number of people
0
yes no
As one can see from the graph the majority of the people questioned said “yes”
to the sated question.
Following from this we can consider it to be important for a fitness center to work
over Weekends the same hours as on Working days as they might lose a lot of
customers as the result of closing fitness center on the days when people would
like to go and use fitness center or closing fitness center earlier.
51
Interview
Introduction
In this sector of the report I will analyze the data I have collected from the
interviews. There analysis will be done by specifying themes and comparing
them to each other in different interviews. Those themes are:
1. The fitness experience the interviewee had in the past and now
2. The conclusions about the services needed and provided, interviewee
made after the experience he had.
3. Look at the number of foreign people using the fitness centers.
4. Compare the customer service provided by the fitness center.
5. See what interviewee thinks about traveling to get to the fitness center.
6. Compare the needs of different people and from them identify the
standards.
7. Compare some other external factors which might influence different
people choose different fitness centers.
52
Analysis
The analysis will be compared to the results I got from the questionnaires. I have
questioned 4 people of different nationalities in Prague College. These
nationalities are:
! British
! Australian
! Croatian
! Vietnamese
All of these people were visiting fitness centers and some of them are visiting
them now.
All of the interviewees were visiting different fitness centers- Fitness Otto,BBC
Vinochradska, Cybex club, Balance Club, Holmeo, Fitness Flex.
This tells me that the standard of quality for these people is quite high as all of
the fitness centers are of a high quality and level.
Question 2 was set for understanding how this people came to this fitness
centers. What was their experience and reason of choosing this FCs.
One of the people did not use any other fitness centers before and chose the
BBC fitness center because it is close to his house and it works 24 hours a day.
Plus the prices of the services are good, which basically shows that the location
does matter for some people and some fitness center will win because of their
location.
53
With the reference to the chart 8 and chart 9 (page 40 and 41) I can say that
this answers can once more show that for 50 % of the people the location
matters and for 100% matters so that the FC works full time. It is obvious that for
most of us price does matter as well.
Second person was visiting small local gym. However he wasn’t satisfied with it
as the people in this gym were undesirable. The reason why he chose Otto
fitness center was his trainer.
With the evidence to the chart 5 and chart 2 in the section 2 one can assume
that individual trainings and good highly qualified trainers are really important
for customers and of course for the fitness center if the owner wants it to be
successful.
Third person was visiting several fitness centers and considers Balance Club
Brumlovka to be the best as it is really modern and the highest quality standards.
She has visited Holmeo Place fitness center, Cybex. The reason why she chose
those specific fitness centers was following:
Cybex club-she got free card
Holmeo place- was recommended
Balance club- she had a discount
That basically tells us that not only a services and facilities attract people to
choose specific fitness centers but discounts, free card which could be received
at work and good recommendations from friends. The word of mouth works a lot
in all of the businesses so it is really important so that customers are satisfied with
54
the services provided and the reputation of the fitness center is not harmed by
some small problems or unfair issues.
The fourth person has visited Fitness center on Namesti Miru and before that she
was using Fitness Flex.
The reason why she chose the fitness center on Namesti Miru was that this fitness
center is only for women. For some women it is very important so that the fitness
center is used only by women this can have many reasons why but the truth is
that some of the fitness centers are specialized in offering services only to
women this can seem like they losing customers but that’s only first impression.
By this specialization they actually attract customers as they showing how they
care about some personal preferences of their customers.
From the first 2 questions of the interviews one can assume that people have
many different reasons as to why choosing a specific fitness center but it is very
important so that the owners of those fitness centers foresee these reasons.
Question 4 was set to understand how many foreign people are going to the
fitness centers which were mentioned by the interviewees. This information will
help me to confirm or to refute the common statement that foreign people are
not using local gyms they use only high quality gyms as their standards of living
and quality are higher. Here is a list of the fitness centers and the comments of
the interviewees on how many foreign people are visiting those FC and how
good is the customer service there:
! Namnesti Miru-a lot of foreign people-good customer service
! Balance Club-50%- very good customer service

55
! Holmeo Place-more Czech people- customer service is okay
! Cybex-more foreigners-good customer service
! Local gyms- less than 20%
! Fitness Otto-mostly Czech about 30% foreigners-customer service is quite
good
! BBC fitness- mainly Czech- customer service is Okay
As one can see from the information above foreign people of course are visiting
mainly places with high quality services but Czech people are using these high
quality places as well so from my analysis I can defiantly say that foreign people
expect more from fitness centers than Czech people but I in general most of
them are not using local gyms.
Question 5 was prepared to ensure that the results from my questionnaires are
correct. This question asked the specific facilities needed by the fitness center
and these are the answers.
Interviewee 1
The fitness center should have sauna and swimming pool
Interviewee 2
The fitness center should provide individual trainings (free trainer would be nice)
and a fitness plan.
56
Interviewee 3
The fitness centers should have variety of facilities to choose from, good
customer service, free lockers, trainers, swimming pool, a lot of courses to
choose from and a discount should be provided on the cosmetics like solarium.
Interviewee 4
The fitness centers should have highly qualified personal trainer.
Going back to the chart 3 and 2 section 2 and chart 4 and 5 section 1 one can
see these answers as further evidence.
Returning back to the location 3 out of 4 interviewees said that the location of
the fitness center does matter this once more shows to us that this aspect is
essential.
The last question I asked was to name other factors which put influence into
your choice of the fitness center. These are the answers:
- Good image
- The popularity of the gym
- The people using the gym must be pleasant
- Variety of offers
- Must be clean
- Must be modern
- Has good and safe equipment
From these answers one can say that the expectations are generally quite basic
and they all refer to the results I got from the questionnaires.
57
Conclusion
This part of the report will be divided into:
! Conclusions I made concerning customer usage
! Conclusions I made concerning fitness centers
! Conclusions concerning new fitness centers
! Foreign people expectations and Czech people expectations
In each part there will be explanation as to why the conclusions are as
following.
58
Conclusions I made concerning customer usage
Through the whole report and my research I was thinking that people will
choose the specific fitness center because of many different reasons those
reasons can be specific offers, location or some external issues and factors
which can put some influence on the choice. This confidence was right and
after I had analyzed all the questionnaires and interviews I got many different
quality issues, facility issues and services issues which just made the choice for
the customer.
In Czech Republic generally people are not expecting much from the fitness
centers but there is still a layer of people who are. Most of people just ask for
clean and safe equipment and gyms in the fitness centers however this is not
shown in my report as the people I was questioning are foreigners and Czech
people who are visiting high quality fitness centers such as World Class, Cybex
club, Balance club Brumlovka and so on.
In general for Prague I can conclude that foreign people want and expect
more from the fitness centers then native people. In the majority they don’t use
small local fitness center or if they do that means that this gyms were rebuild
and they are clean and with the high quality standards.
For the people who want to find a good fitness centers I would recommend to
visit the fitness centers mentioned in the report all of them have high quality
standards, good customer service, and variety of offers like different courses of
yoga and other.
59
For customers who want a specialized fitness center for example specialized in
health then I would recommend fitness center World Class Health Academy. This
fitness center is more concerned and focused on some massages and programs
which will keep you healthy or make you feel better.
For women who want to feel free and comfortable in fitness center there is a
fitness center on Namesti Miru which is only for women and it is really good as to
yoga courses.
To sum up when you choose some fitness center be specific in your wants and
needs. Don’t be lazy to come and see the fitness center from inside and ask for
the brochure of the services provided by the gym. Furthermore ask if they have
any discounts as most of the good fitness centers are giving discounts for the
membership cards which basically means that fitness center cares about the
customers.
Ask about lockers because in some fitness centers they provide full time locker
for members of the club. This will bring you advantages as you don’t need to
take all your stuff for FC with you, you can leave it there.
60
Conclusions I made concerning fitness centers
! Fitness centers which are located in the hotels
! Mentioned fitness center
! Prices in the fitness centers
While I was doing my research I had visited several fitness centers to see how
they look like in my point of view plus I have a membership card in World Class
Health Academy. What I have recognized is as following:
! Fitness centers which are located in the hotels are mostly used by the
people from the hotel as they have free use cards to the fitness center. In
percent they would form around 30% other 70% are divided as following:
o Foreigners around 40%
o Czech people 30%
This is not that amazing but basically the highest quality fitness centers are
there for foreign people.
Most of the fitness centers mentioned in the report are located in the center or
in the hotels like Marriott and Hilton. All of the fitness centers I have mentioned
are very popular as the research results are saying are used by both Czech and
foreign people as they meet expectations of both of the nationality groups.
The prices in this fitness centers are quite high however you can receive a
discount on different programs if you pay lump sum at once. Of course local
gyms cost less but the quality of the service is not that high as well.
61
Conclusions concerning new fitness centers
In this part a short list of the recommendations will be stated for a new fitness
center.
List
! The fitness center should for on Saturday and Sundays full time. (chart 4
section 2 and 9 section 1)
! Should have individual trainings, swimming pool, massages (chat 2 section 2)
! Fitness center should provide-free towels to use, the lockers and the Bar
(chart 6)
! Fitness centers will need to be prepared to work long hours in the evening as
most of the people are using FC at this time of the day (chart 10)
! Most of the people will use FCs in working days ( chart 11) so FCs need to be
prepared to the service more people
! To attract new customers give discounts on cosmetics and discount of 10 -
15% on the membership cards ( interviewee 3)
! Train your employees
! Customer service staff must e prepared to serve foreign people
! Fitness center should have many courses to choose from ( interviewee 3 and
4)
! The equipment should be clean and the surface around needs to be clean
and modern as well
! Do surveys every year to improve your customer service and the services you
provide
62
If fitness center will at list follow these basic guidelines it should be quite
successful in Prague areas as these are basic expectations and needs of the
Prague fitness centers users.
For a new fitness center I would recommend to start from identifying the target
audience and of course to think about who in majority will use the fitness center
foreign people or Czech people as the expectations and needs are different.
63
Recommendations
This part will be divided into 3 sections where I will give some of my personal
opinions and recommendations.
Sectors:
! Recommendations for myself for future reports
! Recommendations for anyone who might do report on the same matter
! Recommendations for the owner of new fitness centers
64
Recommendations for myself for future reports
This report was my first long term project and of course it wasn’t without any
problems and mistakes. There was a whole range of activities which now I would
do in another way.
First thing I would recommend to do is a plan. A good plan where you have a
strategy mentioned, a good ideas and the way you will reach those ideas. I this
plan in my project wasn’t that detailed and that’s why I sometimes came to the
result of nothing or of something which wasn’t really my target or goal.
For future I will try to set a specific target and develop it from the very beginning
as this time while I was researching my primary data sometimes I crossed the
boarders of my target and moved to things which were not needed at all.
My second big problem was that I knew how to create all the questionnaires but
I didn’t know how to distribute them and make people to answer them. I have
sated a target of 30 people questioned which was really hard thing to do and I
have used some ways which were not appropriate specifically for this topic.
Returning back to the questionnaires problem I would say that I have
questioned 27 people but in the middle of my project I have recognized that
this number isn’t appropriate as well. So for next time I would recommend to
search and think how strong your conclusion should be by the end of the
project and then choose the amount of people you will question as if your
conclusion must be strong then the amount of people should be bigger than 50.
65
Furthermore if I will do any report and analysis related to nationalities and the
comparison of them between each other. I would recommend questioning
equal amount of people in each nationality group as the conclusions made will
be more precise.
Looking back at my questionnaire I would say that the options in some questions
were not correctly chosen so for next time I would give it out to someone out of
the project and after they do it I will try to analyze them and make a conclusion
small one so that I know if these questions are giving me the right data.
To sum up I would recommend to myself to work more and harder on every
detail of the future project, pay attention to language style and be more
professionally organized.
66
Recommendations for anyone who might do report on the same
matter.
To anyone who will do such a research on this specific topic I would
recommend following:
! Visit all the fitness centers which were mention in your report and grade
them on the specific criteria so that then you can compare your opinion
to opinion of the questioned people
! Ask only people in the gyms and people who were going to the gyms as
they have experience and more precise view on the matter
! Try to talk to the managers and staff of the fitness centers and ask them
about the differences they see between the listed fitness centers, this will
give a new vision on the issue and may open something new which was
before invisible
! Try to send your questionnaire to the people who are doing sports and ask
them about the fitness centers and the needed components
! I would recommend to choose topic like “fitness centers” only with the
view on whole usage(all over the world)not for a country like Czech
Republic as there is no secondary sources to support your findings
! To put questionnaires online and try to interview trainers in the fitness
centers as this will give more information about the quality of the service
they provide and as the result the quality the fitness center provides
! To keep it simple and enjoy the work you doing
67
Recommendations for the owner of new fitness centers

This part of the recommendations is for people who want to set up a new fitness
center, or who already did but doesn’t know from where to start and for people
who is just thinking about this as a possible thing to do in the future.
First I would say that this business in Czech Republic is quite a successful thing to
do. Of course there is always a chance that something will go the way you
didn’t expect but in general Czech people are using fitness centers a lot and
doing sport.
To start with if you already did set up a fitness center and you don’t know form
where to start to improve it, I would recommend o read this report which might
be helpful in many different ways. Then I would recommend to identify the most
basic things from this report and apply them into your fitness center.
Of course this report is not enough even for planning of the fitness center but it
will show the direction and will motivate you to have your own research on the
matter or visit bureau of Statistics.
68
References
John (2008) the advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires.
Milne Centre for CBL in Land Use and Environmental Sciences,
Aberdeen University.
Available at:
http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/contacts.html (Accessed: 3 May
2010).
http://ezinearticles.com/?Face-to-Face-Surveys&id=838669 (2008) (Accessed:
3 May 2010).
http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers (2008) (Accessed: 25 April 2010).
Hit Fitness
Available at:
http://www.expats.cz/prague/czech/gyms/hitfitnessflora/ (2010) (Accessed: 25
April 2010).
Balance Club information
Available at:
http://www.balanceclub.cz/en/sluzby (2009) (Accessed: 24 April 2010).
69
World Class Fitness
Available at:
http://www.worldclass.cz/ (2008) (Accessed at: 24 April 2010)
http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers/world-class-vaclav (2008)
(Accessed at: 24 April 2010)
BBC- fitness
Available at:
http://www.fitnessbbc.cz/o-nas/
World Class Health Academy
Available at:
http://www.worldclass.cz/about-us/masseurs
http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers/world-class-celnici (2008)
(Accessed: 25 April 2010).
Cybex Gym
Available at:
(http://www.cybex-
fitness.cz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=53&Itemid=71 (2010)
(Accessed: 24 April 2010).
70
http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers/bbc-fitness:6352
http://courses.praguecollege.cz/mod/journal/view.php?id=27101
http://courses.praguecollege.cz/course/view.php?id=864
71
Appendix
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Prague College

Fitness Centers in Prague

My report will be wholly devoted into the problem.

This reports main idea is to investigate everything needed to set up a successful

may put an influence on the decision-making process of the customers. These

specific like services which are expected from it.

report is to create a business plan for a new fitness center.

basic services they would expect from the fitness center.

divided into two groups which are:

- Group 1 People who use fitness centers

- Group 2 People who doesn’t

The second division is as well into two groups which are:

- People who are foreigners

- People who are citizens

report and they are as following:

Section 1 people who do use fitness centers

Section 2 people who doesn’t use fitness centers

different nationalities expect from the fitness centers because the

expectations might be different. The division into 2 sections was done as it is

analysis in an easy way.

To do so I will need to investigate a lot of information which would support

my analysis. To investigate this information I used mainly to methods:

27 questionnaires were received back and analyzed.

visiting the fitness centers very often. I have collected 4 interviews.

following. The customer service in Fitness centers of Prague generally is not of

the prices as well as the quality of the services are high.

standards of living of Czech people and their requirements to the FCs. Of

conclude that to set up a new fitness center in Prague is really problematic

a will then there should be knowledgeable professionals who know Czech

might put any influence.

improve my work. Thank you a lot for giving interview.

and giving interview.

project by answering my questionnaires and giving interviews.

Aims and Objectives- p14

! Primary Research- p. 15-24

Appendix- p 71 and over

! Chart 1 Section2-p 47-48

matter if it is a fitness center or a bar offering drinks.

might be the reason why they are so popular or are not.

Namesti”. Services of all kinds are provided in this sport center:

http://www.worldclass.cz/. (World Class Fitness)

World Class Health Academy

website of this sport center is http://www.worldclass.cz/. (World Class Health

Balance club Brumlovka.

official website of the Club is: http://www.balanceclub.cz/en/sluzby. (Balance

center is- http://hitfit.cz/ . ( Hit Fitness )

of boxing, cycling, floating and so on…). Another gym is on Švehlova 1391/32,

Monday-Friday from 7:00-23:00

Sat-Sun from 8:00-23:00

Gyms on Nám, Na Stráži 1 and Vršovická 1 offer whole range of activities

Mon-Fr: 6.00 - 24.00

Sun-Sat: 9.00 - 24.00

They provide their visitors only solarium. (BBC-Fitness).

gyms of this sport centers are inside the Hotels.

General information about all Fitness centers mentioned is available at:

(http://prague.tv/prague/health/fitness-centers) (2008) (Accessed: 25 April

Aims and objectives

However to investigate and for true understanding of the market we need to

consider all of the factors which put influence on it.

this customer and keep the loyal.

The objectives of this report are to investigate the topics below:

- What do foreigners and PC students require of such a facility?

- Are people satisfied with the CS provided now by existing companies?