Air pollution may change people's gym sports behavior. To test this claim, first, we used big data crawler technology and ordinary least square (OLS) models to investigate the effect of air pollution on people' gym visits in Beijing, China, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic of 2019-2020, and the results showed that a one-standard-deviation increase in PM2.5 concentration (fine particulate matter with diameters equal to or smaller than 2.5 μm) derived from the land use regression model (LUR) was positively associated with a 0.119 and a 0.171 standard-deviation increase in gym visits without or with consideration of the COVID-19 variable, respectively. Second, using spatial autocorrelation analysis and a series of spatial econometric models, we provided consistent evidence that the gym industry of Beijing had a strong spatial dependence, and PM2.5 and its spatial spillover effect had a positive impact on the demand for gym sports. Such a phenomenon offers us a new perspective that gym sports can be developed into an essential activity for the public due to this avoidance behavior regarding COVID-19 virus contact and pollution exposure.
Keywords: COVID-19; PM2.5 concentration; air pollution; gym sports; spatial econometric model.