Fitness NZ – the New Zealand Fitness Industry Association – has launched its second annual GetNZ Active initiative.

The campaign – which started in June and will run throughout July – was originally initiated last year to boost the Association’s limited resources.

Rather than asking Fitness NZ members for additional funding for future activities, the association has asked clubs to donate three, six and 12-month memberships to their facilities, which in turn Fitness NZ is able to sell directly to the public with a 50 per cent discount.

Conditions placed on the memberships aim to specifically attract new customers – they can, for example, only be sold to people who have not been a member of a health club for at least 12 months.

Last year, GetNZ Active involved 130 health clubs and resulted in the sale of 550 memberships, raising more than NZ$130,000 (£43,200) for Fitness NZ.

The body has also developed a new Consumer Protection programme to protect health club members in the event of a club closure.

Many of Fitness NZ’s member clubs have agreed to honour the unused element of a pre-paid membership, also allowing consumers to use their facility should they be affected by the closure of their own club.

Fitness NZ project manager Nicky Ockwell says: “We have started this project to protect the reputation of the fitness industry and ensure we are seen as being proactive in the unlikely event of a club’s closure.”