How Independent Gyms Get Discovered Online
Tourists and expats can't book a gym they can't find. Here's how Costa del Sol gyms get discovered by new customers through ClickPlay.
The Best Gym in Town Doesn't Matter If Nobody Can Find It
The Costa del Sol has no shortage of excellent independent gyms, the problem for most of them isn't quality, it's visibility. Tourists searching in English, expats new to the area, and even locals looking for something better than their current gym simply never find out these venues exist, because discovery on this coast is still largely word-of-mouth, Google Maps guesswork, and outdated directory sites.
Why good gyms stay invisible
A well-run independent gym can do everything right, great equipment, good instructors, fair pricing, and still struggle to grow beyond its existing member base, for reasons that have nothing to do with the product itself. A website only in Spanish loses every English-speaking tourist and expat searching in their own language. No online visibility for day, week or month pass pricing filters out anyone who wants to check options before calling. Being absent from the platforms tourists and new residents actually search on means losing the two customer groups least likely to already know you exist. And limited marketing budget compared to larger chains makes traditional advertising a losing game for smaller venues.
Who's actually searching, and what they need to see
Three groups make up most of the "new to the area" search traffic on this coast, and each has slightly different needs. Tourists want to know, in English, whether they can walk in for a single session and how much it costs. Expats and new residents want to compare several gyms quickly without visiting each one in person. Digital nomads and short-term visitors want flexible, short-term passes that a standard membership-only website doesn't make obvious. All three groups have one thing in common: if your gym isn't visible where they're searching, in a format they can immediately understand, they book somewhere else.
What actually improves discoverability
For independent gyms specifically, a few things move the needle more than a bigger ad budget: being listed on platforms that tourists, expats and short-stay visitors already use to search, rather than relying on them finding your own website first; clearly showing location, hours and pass pricing upfront rather than expecting a phone call to get basic information; offering pay-as-you-go options beyond membership-only so first-time visitors have an easy way in; and collecting reviews, since new-to-the-area customers rely on them far more heavily than existing locals who already trust the venue.
Pumping Hierro in Torremolinos and Uppsala Gym in Puerto de la Torre are good examples of what this looks like done well: both are small, independently run gyms with a strong reputation among people who already know them, and both benefit from being listed somewhere that tourists, expats and digital nomads searching the coast for the first time can actually find them, with clear day, week and month pricing shown upfront rather than buried behind a phone call. The same applies to other independent venues on ClickPlay, like Elite Gym Boutique and House of Yage — smaller operators competing for exactly the same hard-to-reach customers.
How ClickPlay puts gyms in front of the right searches
ClickPlay exists specifically to solve the discovery problem from the customer side. Tourists, expats, digital nomads and locals all search the same verified directory by location and price. For an independent gym, that means being visible to exactly the segments that are hardest to reach through word-of-mouth alone: people who don't yet know anyone locally to ask for a recommendation. Listing your gym puts it in front of searches you'd otherwise never see, without needing your own marketing budget to compete with the multi-site chains for visibility.
Because ClickPlay shows customers upfront how to book: Online, WhatsApp, phone or in person, it also removes one of the biggest drop-off points for a first-time customer: not knowing whether they can just show up, or needing to call a venue that may not answer in English.
Growing beyond word-of-mouth
Independent gyms built their base one satisfied customer at a time, but tourists, new residents and short-term visitors don't have a network to hear about you through. Getting discovered by that segment requires being where they're actually searching, not waiting for them to find your website.
If your gym is ready for more visibility with exactly the customers hardest to reach organically, get listed on ClickPlay and start showing up in the searches that word-of-mouth alone will never reach.
Send an email to clubs@clickplay.co if you want to be part of the most comprehensive directory of gyms and fitness centers in the Costa del Sol, and find out about how we can increase your revenue and reduce no shows with our booking platform.
