Fitness Foot Traffic up Yo3Y for 2nd Quarter in a Row
Offline fitness experienced a revival in Q1. After a budding recovery in Q4 followed by an Omicron-induced drop in visits in January, fitness foot traffic rose once more, leading to an overall 5.6% increase in fitness visits in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2019. This follows a Yo3Y quarterly growth of 2.5% in Q4 2021, meaning that fitness visits over the past two quarters have not only matched pre-pandemic levels, they’ve exceeded them.
The current fitness foot traffic numbers are a testament to the strong demand for offline fitness channels. Much of the foot traffic likely comes from people who were exercising in gyms before the pandemic but had stopped doing so during the COVID era. And for many of these consumers, the novelty of a fitness routine consisting exclusively of home workouts and digital classes has likely worn off after two years.
But some of the visits are also coming from new exercisers. In a survey we conducted in March 2022, almost half of respondents (47.7%) stated that they had taken up or increased their exercising since the pandemic. For those new to working out, exercising in a gym – whether out on the floor under the supervision of trainers or in instructor-led classes – can be invaluable in terms of learning proper form and avoiding injuries. As the pandemic-fueled interest in health and wellness shows no sign of fading, brick and mortar fitness centers are well positioned to continue their growth trajectory.