Something is changing in the land of beer and tapas. So long and so often that it seems unstoppable. And this is in super strength A deep and permanent transformation is taking place at the core of this economic upper sector, which includes many things such as hotel management, bars and snacks. There are fewer and fewer hotel businesses in Spain, but the bleeding doesn’t affect everyone equally and selectively hits a certain type of business.
In over ten years, Spain lost a little more than ten bars each year, at a rate of about 2,000. It is the disappearance of taverns and taverns, especially old bars, small town or neighborhood bars, as well as bars and small discos. From 2010 to last year, 26,830 stores lost that liquor businesses have licenses for bars that do not turn into restaurants.
More than 13% of all existing railings have been removed when the last decade began, according to official data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which shows that the vitola of the great international power in the industry is not at risk: at the end of last year, 175,890 beverage outlets continued to serve beer. One bar for every 270 people. Spain remains an exceptional phenomenon in this field.
Industry restructuring
The decline is not the result of a cyclical crisis. Spain loses a little more than 2,000 bars each year. This is not a collapse caused by the pandemic or the current price spiral. In fact, after more than a decade of where closings were so stable, averaging very close to two thousand closings each year, the crash and subsequent reactivation due to covid has caused the chart to stop being so stable and record some. notches that the industry considers temporary in this case (there have been consecutive increases and decreases in the number of active stores in the last three years).
The buildup of shutdowns comes from afaris progressive. And it has many edges. “You have to see it as a gradual restructuring of the industry. Some stores are closing and others are opening, that’s different. “Small businesses in rural areas, small towns or neighborhoods are closing and other larger average-sized businesses are being maintained or opened,” he explains. Emilio Gallego, Secretary General of Hospitality for Employers of Spain.
And as it closes nearly 2,000 bars in the country each year, Around 1,000 restaurants are also opening their doors. With the professionalization of the industry, it is decided to open restaurants with more commercial options than a lifetime bar. Since 2010, 12,061 establishments with restaurant or food counter licenses have been operating on the Spanish market – which means more requirements and also more investment -, Up to 83,879 organizations, 16.8% more. But it’s still less than half the massive army of bars, taverns, and canteens. In total, between one type of business and the other, the Spanish hospitality industry operated 259,769 businesses last year, 14,769 fewer than thirteen years ago (but still one for every 170 people in the country), according to INE records.
More square meters and more employment
If we measure it in square meters according to the conditions in which our industry is made with retail, The accommodation sector actually continues to grow”gives assurance to the general secretary of the employer’s union of the branch. “There are businesses that are larger, more professional, provide more comprehensive services, and also have more employees.”
According to the business association, the hotel industry is currently intensifying an average of 1.75 million jobs per year (with peaks of up to 1.8 million in July and August, when the summer tourist season is at its peak). ThisApproximately 100,000 more employees compared to 2010, although there are about 14,800 fewer establishments among bars and restaurants.
“The industry is changing because the consumer is changing,” Gallego sums up. “In many cases, establishments disappear because the customers themselves disappear,” he says, referring to depopulation in rural areas or small towns, as well as some neighborhoods of large cities, “when the old buildings remain without the neighborhood when he goes every afternoon to play the game”.
Bars are empty in Spain
The depopulation process and population aging in some regions can be considered as a sure cause that has pushed many bars to close. Regions with higher closure rates are rural Spain. While Castilla y León has lost 20.9% of its bars since 2010; Galicia, 20.6%; or Asturias with 20%. A phenomenon linked to the depopulation of many areas of their region, from the industry itself, and to changes in the population pyramid.
In depopulated small rural towns, the bar is often the last economic bastion, the last commercial stronghold against depopulation. Even if, There are no hotels in 1,435 Spanish municipalities According to a recent survey by Hospitality in Spain (17.7% of the country’s total of 8,131 towns and cities).
Almost all are small towns with less than 100 inhabitants. Only eight of these municipalities, which do not have a bar or restaurant, have a population of more than 400. A total of 142,781 people, or 0.3% of the total national population, live in a barrier-free municipality. Half of the people who do not have access to a hotel in their place of residence live in Castilla y León, 70,441 people do not have a bar, or 3% of the region’s population.
But not everything is empty Spain in the sangria of bars. The Community of Madrid has lost 18.4% of its bar army since the beginning of the last decade.and with a total of 4,165 closures (well over 3,386 in Galicia or 3,171 in Castilla y León), it is the region with the most business closures in absolute terms. However, in the case of Madrid, it is pointed out that there are population reasons, with closures concentrated in neighborhoods and districts on the outskirts of the capital, and restaurant openings concentrated in newly created neighborhoods or PAUs.