The impact of health crisis on sports consumption – A longitudinal study

Abstract

This research identifies the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and compares it with the pre-pandemic year of 2019 on leisure sports consumption patterns among Spanish families from the gender perspective. The study analyses longitudinal official open massive data collected from the Spanish Family Budget Survey (2019–2020) to create market segmentations based on gender, year, age, and sociocultural level variables. The study's findings reveal stereotypes in leisure sports expenditure based on the gender of the household earner. In 2020, spending on leisure sports increased to a record high of 176%, with spending by men drastically lower and women considerably higher than in 2019.