ib rp fitness centers in prague tamara

8/9/2019 IB RP Fitness Centers in Prague Tamara

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PragueCollege

10

Fitness Centers inPragueFitness Centers inPrague,howtobe successful

AyrapetovaTamara


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FitnessCentersinPrague

2

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 doesnt


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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 doesnt 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.


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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 dont 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


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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 doesnt

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 its 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: Vclavsk nm.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

!"#$%$&'()%*+,)+(%#$%-'*.)+/%#,%0'12+3,4%56%578%99%0(.:;+%7+,)(;?6%1;#-/#,:%@ABCDEFGH%FI$J'K#-'L.%MN5599O


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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 (Chrudimsk 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 caf 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

Vinohradsk 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 vehlova 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 Nm, Na Stri 1 and Vrovick 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 Nm. I. P. Pavlova 3 and Masn 5 dont 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

havent 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 wont 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 doesnt this will help me to make the

correct conclusion about whats 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 Im 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 thetimetable 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

! Dont have time

! Other

This question identifies the possible reasons to why some dont use fitness

centers. From this we can see the percentage of people who can be potentialcustomers 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 dont

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 dont. 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.

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.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Differentnationali ties

Numberofpeop

l

e

NumberofpeopleusingFC


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Chart2

In the chart2 one can se

centers. On the X axis on

There are 5 possibilities- e

months and never. On th

specific option.

As one can see from the

18% every month and 11

help to understand how

they expect from them a

The majority of the peopl

people who do use fitne

uses it at least every mon

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Everyday Ev

Num

`

berofpeop

l

e

Numb

a number of people using the FC in th

e can see how often one can use the fi

very day, every week, every month, ev

e Y axis one can see a number of peo

chart 39% of the people are using the F

3 months- 6 month and 32 % never. T

many people are using the fitness cent

nd plus we will know how many people

e are using it every week followed by t

s centers at all and then goes group of

th. From this we can observe following

eryweek Everymonth 3month-6month

Neve

How often

rofpeoplevisi tingF.C

29

e different

tness centers.

ry 3 months- 6

le voting for a

C every week,

is chart can

rs and what

are not visiting.

e group of

people who

that Prague is a

r


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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.

As one can see from the graph above Vietnamese are the most frequent users

of FC followed by Russians.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Russia Czech Mexico Britain Vietnam Kazakhstan

Numberofpeop

l

e

Countries

UseFCeveryweek


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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.

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.

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.

8

1

1.2

USA Ukrain Czech Viet nam

Numberofpeo

pl

e

Nationa li ties

Everymonth


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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.

As one can see from the graph above there is 67% of people are from Croatia.

33%

67%

Every3month- 6month

Croatia Vietnam


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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.

As one can see from the graph above the widest group is Vietnamese. From this

we can assume that most of the Vietnamese people dont visit fitness centers.

.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Uzbekistan Czech Switzerland Serb ia Kazakhstan Vietnam

Numberofpeop

l

e

Countries

NeverusingFC


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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.

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.

0

1

2

3

4

56

7

8

.Wor ld

Class

.Wor ld

Class

Academy

.BBC

Fitness

Center

.Cybex

Gym

.Balance

club

Brum lovka

.Hitfitness.Yourlocal

gym

.Other

Numberofpeople

DifferentFC

Ifyouwou ldchooseFCwhichone itwou ld

be?


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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.

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.

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.

8

1

1.2

Czech Vietnam kazakhstan Russia Croatia Mexico USA

Numberofpeop

l

e

Countries

WorldClass


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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.

As one can see from the graph above the biggest grouping is the Vietnamese

nationality group which is 67% followed by Russian 17%.

67%

16%

17%

Local Gyms

Viet nam Kazakhstan Russia


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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.

As one can see from the graph the biggest group is Vietnamese nationality

group which is 72% followed by two equal nationality groups.

14%

72%

14%

BBCFC

Czech Vietnam Mexico


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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.

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.

10

5

3 3

9

12

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

SwimmingPool .Solarium .Aerobics .Massage Yoga Individua l

Trainings

numberofpeop

l

e

Facil ities providedbytheFC

Whatfacilities areyouexpectingfromFC?


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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.

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).

01234

56789

10

Numb

erofpeop

l

e

serv ices

What services doyouexpecttoreceivefromFC?


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Chart 7

Chart 7 shows the responses from the question- Does your local gym full fill your

needs? The figures are represented in percentages.

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.

58%

42%

Does your local gymfull fil yourneeds?

yes

no


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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.

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.

50%50%

iftheFCwou ldmeetall yourneeds andwants

wou ldyoutravel far?

yes no


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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.

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

dont 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 oclock or even later.

From this analysis FC can get a big benefit and by changing their timetable

attract more customers in.

yes

100%

no

0%

DoyouexpectFCworkonSaturdays and

Sundays full time?


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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.

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.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Morning Afternoon Even ing Night

Numberofpeop

l

e

Tima scale

Whenareyouvisi tingFC?


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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.

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.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

WorkingDays We ekends

NumberofPeop

l

e

Whenareyouvisi tingFC?


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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:

! Dont have time to visit FC

! Prefer exercising outside in the park

! Other

As one can see from the graph above 37% from the questioned said that they

dont 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% dont like in already existing fitness centers and attract them as

only 37% of people dont have time and it is not possible to target them. The

37%

13%

50%

WhyareyounotvisitingFC?

Don'thavetime Pre ferexercisingoutsideinthe park other


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same with the people who chose the answer that they prefer exercising outside

and it will be hard to make then change their mind.


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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.

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.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

swimmingpoo l solarium aerobics massage individual

training

yoga

Numberofpeop

l

e

Facil ities

Whatfacilities doyouexpectfromtheFC?


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Chart 3

Chart 3 represents data collected from the following question- what services do

you expect from the fitness center?

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.

0123456789

10

Numberofpep

l

e

serv ices

What services doyouexpecttoreceivefromFC?


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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 doesnt think it is

necessary.

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.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

yes no

Numberofpe

op

l

e

DoyouexpectFCwork inSaturdays and

Sundays full time?


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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.


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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 wasnt 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


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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 thats 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


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! 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.


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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.


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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.


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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 dont 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.


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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. Dont 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 dont need to

take all your stuff for FC with you, you can leave it there.


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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.


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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


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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.


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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


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Recommendations for myself for future reports

This report was my first long term project and of course it wasnt 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 wasnt that detailed and thats why I sometimes came to the

result of nothing or of something which wasnt 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 didnt 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 isnt 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.


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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.


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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


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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 doesnt 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

didnt 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 dont 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.


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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).




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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).


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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


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Appendix

ib rp fitness centers in prague tamara

Documents