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One of my long standing business ambitions has been to open a fitness 'getaway'. One that focuses on just reducing the friction for adults to eat well, train, rest, have few distractions, not worry about coaching, not worry about commuting to the gym and have a court or field right there just outside where you live. Even good food in the form of fresh eggs, milk, meat, grain and vegetables should be available all the time.
The math in India for such a service adds up poorly. First up, is the cost of this service. Such a model needs a steady stream of people through the year to make sense. India is unfortunately a market with seasonal tourism.
You'll need an ample 10-15 acres of land to accommodate residences, shops, kitchen, admin space, gym, courts and quarters. That in an urban space does not come cheap.
If you venture out into tier-2 cities, it gets more affordable. Tier-3 is even better. You can get a terrific 15-20 acres for 3-4 crore. And building the space out with the barebones needed to get it moving will cost another 4-5 crore (not counting fully kitted out space that could go double or triple that number). That's Rs 8-10 crore right there to accommodate 40-50 people. You'd have to charge 1.5-2 lakhs a month year round for a spot for it to begin to make sense. At the very least.
And reaching Tier-3 cities is a pain. Even consistent supplies of ingredients such as whey and quality dairy can be patchy.
This could work if India were a more attractive destination like Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. Those countries do have facilities to accommodate athletes for weeks to months. But that market is non-existent in India. There is a whole eco-system of restaurants, gyms and other infrastructure that exists to support the recreational yet serious athlete.
My bet is as India sees increasing participation of people in sports including lifting and Hyrox, residential projects will begin to factor for this and build for this audience. At the moment, most gyms in these projects are very poorly planned and built. There's a token squat rack, cable machine and few other machines. And a treadmill etc. But nothing to accommodate a serious trainee. Some gyms have a single squat rack or one pull up bar or poorly planned monkey bars. It’s quite sad really. Gym layouts in some of these complexes are pathetic. And it can easily be much better.
But this will change I hope. So you don't have to travel to have this lifestyle. You can live the dream everyday.