Behind the Scenes: Dec ‘20

Christmas is looking very different this year to what we all expected. As we look ahead to the turn of a new year, Atlantis continues to make changes to cope with the unpredictable situation. Read on to find out how the restrictions are having an impact on Atlantis’ operations over the festive season:

Christmas Break
Atlantis normally closes for a spell over Christmas and New Year each year. This year we’ll close on the evening of the 23rd of December and reopen with most facilities on the morning of the 4th of January.

Pool Closure
Re-opening the pools at Atlantis has been a double-edged sword. On one hand it has been fantastic to be able to welcome swimmers back and we have heard from many people how helpful swimming has been for them during this difficult time. On the other hand, heating, staffing and maintaining the safety of two swimming pools is very costly. The occupancy restrictions brought by Covid-19 have made the high costs even more difficult to manage than normal. Without careful management and funding, Oban risks losing its pool altogether.

To help us manage the cost of the swimming pools, they will stay closed a little while longer after the rest of the facilities reopen after the Christmas break. The Pools will reopen on the 18th of January.

Reopening Atlantis
We’ve been so encouraged by the enthusiasm and support from our customers throughout this year. Since reopening in August, we’ve had over 10,000 visits from nearly 1000 separate users. Without your patience and understanding, the many changes we’ve had to make in reaction to the daily changing situation would have been so much harder. The Sports Hall is helping to bring back that ‘Atlantis buzz’ we all love so much. It’s become a hub of activity with badminton, basketball and table tennis happening in and around the rhythm of the Gym.

Customers continue to fill our Fitness Class programme, with new classes filling up soon after they’re listed. This is important for us as it allows us to support our team of instructors and get creative about how we satisfy demand but still keep everybody safe.

Staff Team
Some of the staff team remain on flexible-furlough. Furlough has been an important lifeline for many local businesses and without it, Atlantis would not have been able to survive this year. The extension of the scheme to March allows us to further protect the business well into next year.

The staff that remain have continued to keep busy in the run up to Christmas. Some of the team recently completed their RLSS pool lifeguard upskilled training. Continuous training like this is all the more important during Covid times as it ensures Atlantis is ready to react as and when restrictions change.

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From everyone at Atlantis Leisure: thank you to the community of Oban for your ongoing support this year. We wish you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year.