Tourism broke its historical record of activity and this year everything indicates that the trend will be the same, but one of its great challenges is the lack of labor.
This was highlighted this Monday by the governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, who in a forum organized by the Hotusa hotel group in Madrid has asked the Government to “improve active employment policies” to alleviate the shortage of workers in this sector.
“There is a lack of personnel and that is something that is happening all over the world,” the president of Hotusa, Amancio López, and Raúl González, CEO of the Barceló group, agreed to state at the same event held in Madrid.
The meeting brought together representatives of companies and administrations in a key week for tourism, on the eve of the Fitur macrofair, which opens on Wednesday, and when a record year has just closed with more than 84 million arrivals of foreign tourists. and more than 108,000 million euros of spending.
But the sector faces several obstacles and one of them is that 42.5% of tourism companies perceive labor problems, according to a study carried out by the Bank of Spain, an even higher percentage in hospitality and transport, with 55% and 51%, respectively.
De Cos highlighted during his speech that employability must be promoted with active policies "coordinated with the system of unemployment benefits and subsidies."
And he added that the productivity of the sector is lower than that of the economy as a whole, for which it would be advisable to reduce the high temporary nature of employment and also the high turnover, which prevents workers from gaining experience.
Active employment policies depend on the autonomous communities and include actions to link unemployed workers with job vacancies.
In the tourism sector, the discontinuous fixed contract went from 11% in 2021 to an average of 20.8% in 2023, above the economy as a whole.
The recovery of tourism has once again fueled discontent among residents of the most visited areas.
In this sense, the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has pointed out in the same forum that there is “tourismphobia in the central Government”, especially “in the previous legislature” and among the parties that support the PSOE, which produces “ insecurity and distrust.”
Without mentioning it directly, the opposition leader has referred to former Minister of Consumption Alberto Garzón, who said in 2020 that Spanish tourism is “precarious and seasonal”, and has “low added value”.
Feijóo considers “a democratic anomaly” that there are parties “with speeches so hostile to tourism.”
The increase in air taxes has also been the subject of debate.
The CEO of Ryanair, Eddie Wilson, has asked Aena, the airport manager, to reverse the rate increase announced for March, of 4.09%, to prevent prices from rising and damaging the competitiveness of Spanish airports. .
“The company decided to invest in Spain thinking about a scenario of maintaining prices until 2026-2027, he said at a debate table.
At his side, the CEO of Aena, Maurici Lucena, has defended the increases, necessary to make the investments to adapt capacity to the growth in the number of passengers.
In 2023, Spanish airports broke a traffic record thanks to tourism: 283 million people passed through the Aena network last year, almost 3% more than the year immediately before the pandemic.
In an example of the good progress of tourism, the Riu hotel group announced this Monday that it closed 2023 with historic revenues that rose to 3,607 million euros, which represents a growth of 24% over the previous year, thanks to the increase in rates and improvement in occupancy.
The company led by Luis Riu plans to strengthen its international presence in 2024 with the opening of four newly built hotels in Jamaica, Mauritius and Chicago.
“For all this, we face 2024 with optimism, because the figures continue to accompany us,” says the manager, who has not participated in the Hotusa forum, but has detailed the data in a
post
published on his blog.
Within the framework of the forum, the CEO of Barceló, Raúl González, has predicted that it is difficult for the sector to grow in 2024 at a rate as strong as 2023, but he has not hesitated to affirm that he expects "also a record."
“The new generations are more travelers,” he highlighted.
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