Geographical Distribution of Small Physical Exercise Enterprises in the Greater Athens Area

The determinants of the geographical distribution of private business exercise centers in a large city, such as the wider area of Athens known as Attica, are the subject matter of this paper. The spatial distribution of any business enterprise, particularly those dealing with physical exercise, is of interest for two reasons. First, the spatial distribution of such businesses highlights the unevenness of health-related activities among the wider population living in a large metropolitan city, where geographical location often indicates uneven wealth distribution. This has certain government policy implications if physical exercise is to be considered a public good to be shared equally by all, rich and poor. Second, the spatial distribution of gym businesses shows whether, given wealth and population, there is an over- or undersupply of gym services. If there is an undersupply, there are opportunities for investment in small physical exercise businesses. This empirical study uses the 58 municipalities of Attica and the geographical distribution of 214 physical exercise businesses to show how wealth and population affect the under- or oversupply of physical exercise enterprises. The empirical evidence shows that, as expected, there is a positive effect of both wealth and population. However, the population effect is linear, while the wealth effect is non-linear; an increase in wealth increases the number of gyms in an area but at a decreasing rate. The study also identifies unexplored opportunities for investing in small physical exercise enterprises as well as areas of oversupply. Keywords: Gyms, population, wealth, SMEs, fitness centers, exercise, geographical distribution, spatial distribution, entrepreneurs, Athens, Attica