After deep lull during pandemic, fitness industry has begun gaining ground now

Team L&M

Post Covid19, Indians are shifting from a sedentary lifestyle to adopting a more fit and healthy lifestyle as demand for fitness training classes sees a 234 per cent rise (YOY) with Tier-II cities leaping ahead of Tier-I in terms of searches, reveals the latest Just Dial Consumer Insights.

India’s fitness training industry has been impacted severely since the outbreak of Covid19. Gyms were shut down while other physical fitness classes like yoga went into a virtual model, spelling doom for fitness trainers. But now with all Covid19 restrictions withdrawn, the manifold rise in demand for gyms and yoga classes comes as a silver lining for the fitness training industry in the country.

Searches on Just Dial indicate that even Tier-II cities are increasingly getting online to find the best fitness classes in the neighbourhood and searches and have slightly edged past those in Tier-I cities. The total number of searches in Tier-II towns and cities was 6.3 per cent higher than in Tier-I cities during the April-May-June (AMJ) 2022 quarter on Just Dial.

Commenting on the trends, Just Dial CEO Prasun Kumar says, “The rise in demand for fitness training classes signals the revival in business for fitness trainers and gym owners. In the last two years, people have realised the importance of staying fit and healthy, which is being reflected in the number of searches for fitness training on Just Dial. Besides the usual gym and yoga classes, we are also witnessing a rise in demand for specialised and niche services like dieticians and personal yoga trainers that are growing by 38 per cent YOY.”

Gyms dominated the searches on Just Dial for fitness training, contributing to almost 62 per cent of the total searches during the AMJ’22 quarter. During the same period in 2021, gyms contributed to 53 per cent of searches for fitness training classes. Demand for yoga classes was second at 19per cent while gymnastics classes were third at 5 per cent during the AMJ’22 quarter.

Searches for gyms in India saw a YOY rise of 280 per cent in Tier-I cities and in Tier-II it went up by 276 per cent. Tier-I cities saw a 211per cent rise in demand for yoga classes and in Tier-II it was 255 per cent. Demand for gymnastic classes surged by 300 per cent in Tier-I cities and in Tier-II by 207 per cent.

Demand for gyms was the highest in Delhi and Mumbai with both the Tier-I cities witnessing almost the same number of searches while Chennai was third. For yoga, Mumbai topped the number of searches, and the demand was 40 per cent higher than second-placed Delhi and Bengaluru was third. Searches for gymnastic classes were also 50 per cent higher in Mumbai vis-à-vis Delhi while Pune was second.

Among Tier-II towns and cities, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Patna, Jaipur, and Surat were the Top-5 markets that saw maximum demand for gyms. For gymnastic classes, maximum searches were from Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Indore, and Surat.