Tourism is accelerating towards a record year with the explosion of demand from domestic and foreign travelers and the increase in tourism. rising prices. The industry predicts extreme activity growth and a historic summer is expected. This explosion of demand, which made it possible to leave behind the slowdown caused by the pandemic, also direct impact on employment of the tourism industry.
Even before the summer high season arrived, the industry has already managed to boost job creation to an all-time high for workers. Firms in different branches of tourism activity total 2,752 million members Social Security was the best month in industry history, above the record 2,702 million workers hit so far in July last year.
According to the records of SGK and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, The number of participations exceeded 5.5% in May data for the same month of the previous year are above the rates for the entire economy (2.7% increase). The new record brings the weight of tourism to 13.3% of the total subsidiaries of all sectors of the Spanish economy.
Tourism industry in the last year created a total of 144,272 additional jobs There were increases in all tourism branches compared to May of the previous year. It has reached 1.84 million employees in the accommodation sector with 87,544 affiliates (55,257 in food and beverage services and 32,287 in accommodation services); increase in travel agencies was 6,571 workers to over 65,900; and other tourism activities, employment increased by 50,157 to exceed 841,600 workers.
More employment and more stable
“Today’s data is extraordinary news at the door of a summer that will be historic in terms of both tourist numbers and spending.” Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism Héctor Gómez “Employment is growing and even better, the quality of employment is improving. The figures show that the tourism sector has recovered not only quantitatively but also qualitatively (…). Industry professionals having fun greater social protection and guarantees of workers’ rights“, sentence.
An employment stability that also benefits from large tourism groups. The lobby that brings together the thirty largest companies in the industry is Excel (among them Meliá, NH, Iberia, Globalia, Riu or Amadeus), emphasizing that ttransience collapsed in the tourism industry to about half of the usual levels before labor reform was approved.
And it is that companies are clearly linking greater job stability with the implementation of government-sanctioned labor reform, which reduces assumptions that companies can sign temporary contracts, causing a rapid increase in indefinite contracts. According to Exceltur’s last quarterly report, 91% of the affiliates in the sector already have permanent contracts.and “not only because of the extension of perpetual contracts”.
The tourism employment record comes at a time when companies in the industry are warning of difficulties in making all the mergers needed to meet demand. Major companies in the industry describe improving their ability to attract trained workers as one of this year’s biggest challenges after “relocating to other industries due to the protracted pandemic.”
According to Exceltur, a problem “especially in the coming months when the high season starts” will arise especially in “areas that have trouble finding housing” – forcing companies to offer their employees sun and sun-drenched accommodation throughout the season. coastal places-.