An estimation of consumer spending on sport in Lithuania, its division between active and passive participation and the effects of COVID-19

<jats:p>The economic importance of sport has been developing from several methodological origins. Most economic research into the sport economies develops indicators for gross value added (GVA), employment and consumer spending. A further elucidation of the benefits of the sport economy relates to well-being outcomes, either from sport participation or from sport spectating. The added value of this research is that it estimates sport consumer spending in Lithuania into two distinctive strands: active participation (e.g., participating in sport or fitness) and passive participation (e.g., attending sport events). The aim of this research is to link the consumer spending results to the GVA and employment results of the Sport Satellite Account and elucidate the main characteristics of the sport economy and how these are affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Analysis of the scientific literature, a survey sample in Lithuania consisting of 3506 respondents who spent part of their household budget on sports activities (active or passive), and a specific method of analysis were developed and applied in this research. The research results show that consumer expenditure in sport is divided into passive and active with percentage shares of 17% and 83%, correspondingly. Sport consumption overall accounts for 2.2% of total consumption in Lithuania. Most elements of consumer spending in the passive and active categories are associated with welfare effects. The importance of the analytical framework is that we can explicitly differentiate among categories such as tourism for participation and tourism for spectating, which are associated with different well-being effects. The pandemic affected 53.7% of active sport consumption, a smaller percentage than in the case of passive participation (67.4%).</jats:p>