Five sectors set to thrive beyond the mining boom – Page 2 of 5 – StartupSmart

2. Personal fitness and wellbeing

Australia’s ageing – and increasingly overweight – population is set to fuel a number of business opportunities in the years to come, such as the personal fitness industry.

These huge demographic trends look set to fuel the fitness boom in the years to come, although the mining industry does contribute to the sector by regularly building gyms for fly-in-fly-out workers.

Figures released by the Department of Education earlier this year showed that in the past five years, the number of fitness instructors in Australia has grown 36.7%, compared to 13.1% for all other occupations.

There are now 22,888 fitness instructors operating in Australia, and that number is likely to increase by 252% to an additional 57,592 instructors by 2020.

Happily for potential new entrants to this market, the trend seems to be moving away from the large, contract-binding chains and more towards leaner, more user-friendly operators.