Who are the biggest burners and when do they break a sweat?
Insights manager Lizzie Broughton sums up ukactive’s inaugural
Global Boutique Trends report
By Lizzie Broughton | Published in Health Club Handbook 2019 issue 1
Boutique fitness is most popular with Millennials / Photo: PSYCLE
New from ukactive, the Global Boutique Trends Report (2018 edition) highlights demographics and behaviours driving the boutique boom in London, New York, Los Angeles and Mexico City.
The report is based on data gathered by booking software company zingfit and analysed by the ukactive Research Institute in London from a sample of one million customers and five million bookings.
The team looked at who attends boutique fitness classes, when they book and attend classes, and where they’re from.
Even though the traditional perception of boutiques is of female-dominated environments (think yoga and spin), the extent of women’s influence is surprising.
ukactive researchers found that more than 80 per cent of boutique fitness customers are female across three of the four cities in the study – an overwhelming figure, which highlights the strong demand amongst women for boutique fitness classes. In London and New York, women make up 83 per cent of classes booked, while in Los Angeles and Mexico City they make up 81 per cent and 68 per cent of bookings respectively.
INTERNATIONAL CLIENTELE There’s also a clear international demand for boutique fitness in London, attracting customers from across the globe, and the research highlights the growing popularity of boutique exercise classes among inbound visitors to the British capital.
Fifteen cities around the world had more than 50 residents who attended classes in London over the period of the study, including visitors from the USA, Hong Kong and Australia.
LUNCHTIME WORKOUT The study also identified London as home of the lunchtime workout – with almost 20 per cent of classes in London taking place during lunch, compared to less than five per cent in Mexico City, where workouts before work are preferred.
Boutique fitness has traditionally been seen as a Millennial-driven subset of the fitness market and the Global Boutique Trends Report supports that assertion, as less than eight per cent of bookings were made by the over-45s across all the cities, with the average age of those attending boutique classes in London being just under 32-years-of-age.
The report also explored the appetite for advanced bookings and found a clear discrepancy between one city and the others. While more than 65 per cent of customers in Mexico City booked on the day, more than 60 per cent book in advance in London, New York and Los Angeles. This difference in booking times highlights a trend within the US and the UK for customers to want to plan their fitness week ahead of time, by booking exercise classes around their weekly schedule.
Looking at the registered customers of each studio within each city who supplied their gender, we can see how the breakdown between males and females compares
• Customer data from all four cities showed a clear gender bias towards female customers
• New York and London had identical customer gender splits of 17% male and 83% female
• The Los Angeles gender distribution was also similar, at 19% male
• Mexico City was the city that stood out from the rest, with nearly one third of registered customers being male (32%)
Who’s using boutiques?
Age distribution
Looking at the registered customers of each studio within each city who supplied their date of birth, we can see how the age distribution compares
Average age
• All four locations showed a big skew in the age distribution of their customers towards the younger age groups, with each city having less than 8% of customers aged 45 and over
• This was most obvious in Mexico City, with half of customers aged 25-34, and a further 28% aged 15-24
• In Los Angeles, the average age was nearly five years older than Mexico City, and LA also had the highest proportion of customers aged 35+
• New York and London showed very similar age distributions
Boutique bookings
Sunday was the least popular day for classes in three out of four cities
The most popular day for classes was Tuesday in three out of four cities
There were key differences in the most popular class times, with Mexico City having a much higher percentage of pre-work bookings than any other city 40 %
Lunchtime classes were popular in London, representing 17 % of bookings, but less so elsewhere
Booking types
1 in 4 classes in London are booked as part of a package of 10 classes or more
Bulk class purchases comprise 89 per cent of bookings, showing the power of boutiques to foster a sense of loyalty
ClassPass bookings comprise just under 1 in 5 bookings (18 per cent), with introductory offers for new customers counting for 1 in 10 bookings (11 per cent)
Less than 10 per cent of bookings take place more than a week in advance
No show rates
(where customers pay, but don’t show up)
New York 13%
London 12%
Los Angeles 8%
Mexico City 7%
New York, London and Los Angeles
all showed two peak times for class bookings: before work (5-8am) after work (5-7pm)
There are two distinct quiet periods across all cities:
afternoon (2-4pm)
late evening (8-9pm)
1Rebel is one of London’s most popular boutiques / Photo: 1REBEL
Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam, has put together a Global Wellness Day
(GWD) agenda with activations rooted in nature and shaped by four pillars of Joy – in
alignment with the day’s theme #JoyMagenta.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2026 event in
Phuket, Thailand, later this year with the theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness.
Auko, an all-inclusive development, is opening in Phong Nha in Vietnam in Q3 2026, with a
series of 30 tented eco-lodges and wellness hospitality operations by Lumina Wellbeing.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, has opened a 2,800sq m spa called The Sanctuary,
with the design and concept inspired by the Native American people that populated Florida’s
Southwest coast – the Calusa.
Swire Hotels’ luxury hospitality brand Upper House has revealed it will roll out its two-day
House of Healing retreats at its three hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai.
LVMH-owned beauty house Guerlain will launch up to five spas with partners a year as part of
its plan to expand globally, according to the brand’s international spa and wellness director,
Diane Davody.
A new global study by Kevin Kelly and Peter Yesawich, called WELLSurvey 2.0, has revealed
more than half of consumers in the UK, US and Germany would not choose numerous high-
profile wellness resort brands for a future trip.
