The pop-up concept is thriving – a new generation of time-limited operations that use existing or temporary locations to launch low-risk, often highly creative leisure experiences, from hotels to spas, restaurants to cinemas, parks to shops (see Leisure Management issue 2 2013, p42).

As Liz Terry, editor of Leisure Management, outlined in her editor’s letter in that issue (issue 2 2013, p3): “Designing, funding, building and running facilities is an expensive undertaking, but because the majority of people’s out-of-home leisure activity has traditionally taken place in and around some kind of facility, operators have always had to bear the costs associated with this.

“But they’re facing new competition from operations seeking to profit by operating equivalent experiences for customers, while bearing none of the costs associated with facility operations – and they’re doing it in innovative ways.”

The traditional facility-based model has already been challenged in the fitness sector by outdoor boot camps, virtual group exercise classes on the internet, fitness apps. And now pop-ups are starting to enter this same territory.

But rather than seeing this as a threat, the pop-up concept in fact offers fitness operators an exciting opportunity – a cost-effective way to expand their reach and test out new markets. Here’s a selection of initiatives that illustrate how to tap into this hot new trend.