Before the temporary closure due to the state of alarm, Spain had 4,000 private sports facilities with 5.5 million users
The Popular Parliamentary Group has proposed to the Government, through a Proposal not of Law in the Congress of Deputies, that allows the reopening of the gyms with a specific sanitary protocol.
Specifically, the GPP proposes to the Executive “to design a special sanitary protocol to reopen private sports facilities (private gyms), specifying the necessary resources for personal protection against possible COVID-19 infections, both material and personal,” and to facilitate the reopening of these facilities "adapting the labor and tax regulations in force to their unique circumstances".
With this initiative, the Government is also urged to "design and launch an institutional information campaign promoting healthy habits, physical exercise and sport, aimed at society in general and, especially, the child population, population with chronic diseases or affected by sedentary lifestyle ”.
In this regard, adds the GPP, "the campaign will extol the importance of physical exercise and sport led by graduates and graduates in Physical Education who develop their profession on their own or in private sports facilities in Spain (private gyms)." Similarly, the Popular Group proposes to create "incentives" for digitization, adaptation to the new economy and improvement of competitiveness in these facilities.
The explanatory memorandum of this initiative recalls that, before its temporary closure due to the state of alarm, our country had more than 4,000 private sports facilities, with 5.5 million users and an annual turnover of 2,000 million, in addition of the number of thousands of jobs out of the 214,000 jobs linked to sports in our country, all this added to the 34,529 companies that had sport as their main activity.
Currently, the Proposition details, "there are already 26 million Spaniards who regularly practice sport and physical exercise", with beneficial effects for health. But "Spanish sport is a social phenomenon that, in addition, has become a great economic incentive in all areas," remarks the GPP.
This initiative is signed by its spokesperson Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, the PP's deputy secretary, Cuca Gamarra, the deputy spokesperson for the GPP Marta González, the sports spokesperson, Javier Merino, and the deputies Óscar Gamazo, Alberto Herrero, Miguel Ángel Castellón, Diego Movellán and Elena Castillo
