Improving Your Restaurant

The Blue Gym Affects Waterfront Dining Customers

4 February 2022

Julia Payne

One of the questions that the Blue Gym Initiative seeks to answer is whether blue environments like oceans contribute to a person's health and well-being. What is a blue environment? It is the waterfront, blue sky, the blue of the sea or ocean. Think about how you feel when you dine out on the patio at a waterfront seafood restaurant as opposed to sitting inside the restaurant without the view of the ocean. Which is more relaxing to you?

The Blue Gym Initiative, which began in the U.K. in 2009, found that dining in the fresh air with a view of the waterfront not only reduces stress but promotes environmental awareness.

Stress Reduction and Other Health Benefits

Stress reduction, physical activity, and social interactions have long been known to lower blood pressure and promote a sense of well-being. And blue has long been known to psychologically promote calmness, tranquility, and a sense of orderliness. So, if you are outdoors sitting on a patio eating seafood at a waterfront restaurant on the coast looking out over the ocean, the Blue Gym study results state that you are more likely to lower your blood pressure and enjoy your social interactions more than if you were eating inside the restaurant, simply because of the fresh air and the view.

The Benefit of Environmental Awareness

Another benefit that the Blue Gym study found was that people who physically and psychologically benefited from a blue waterfront view would choose to come back as well as choose to become more aware of their environment. Environmental awareness has a restorative effect as you become a part of your surroundings and allow it to not only educate you but to build a sense of community. Tourists that are waterfront dining customers, according to the study, were more likely to return to the coast and the community to re-experience that sense of health and well-being.

The Blue Gym Initiative study is ongoing. One last thing of interest that the study found was that a clean, pristine environment promoted a healthier sense of overall well-being, stress reduction, and community enjoyment over visiting places where waterfronts were visibly littered, cluttered by too many things and too many people. Next time you visit a waterfront, especially in a coastal area where the ocean meets a restaurant with sustainable seafood served on an outdoor patio with a killer view, bring a few friends and enjoy the Blue Gym effect on your mental health.

Check out waterfront seafood restaurants to learn more.

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