Chapter 17: The Evolution of Digital Transformation in Saudi Arabia’s Fitness Industry

The digital revolution has transformed the way the fitness economy operates, moving towards maximum efficiency with cost savings and affecting the way fitness centres interact with members. Digital transformation is defined as ‘the process of exploiting digital technologies and supporting capabilities to create a robust new digital business model’ (Gartner, n.d.). In Saudi Arabia, the fitness sector’s digitisation journey started before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has since progressed considerably.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, bordering the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, is the largest country in size in the Middle East and is one of the leading exporters and producers of oil in the world (CIA, n.d.), which makes it the single largest economy in terms of GDP in the Middle East and North Africa (The World Bank, n.d.). Approximately 67% of the country’s 34.7 million population are under the age of 35 (General Authority for Statistics, 2020), which makes it a fertile ground for the sports industry to flourish. Thanks in full to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 – a national blueprint to diversify the economy, support youth and enhance the quality of life – the industry experienced unprecedented growth, particularly in the removal of restrictions on female fitness centres in 2017 (Almohaimeed & Pérez-Villalba, 2021), which opened up an entirely new category to serve a market that remains gender-segregated. Additionally, the Ministry of Sports had put measures in place to facilitate the provision of fitness centre, foreign direct investment (FDI) and licensing under a new scheme entitled NAFES – an online platform to issue licenses for private sport clubs, sport academies and sport centres (‘Saudi Arabia entices investors’, 2021).