Financial Times: Severe labor shortage prevents recovery in Europe's tourism sector

London-Sana

The British Financial Times announced that there are many obstacles facing the return of the tourism sector in Europe to its previous era, especially the severe shortage of labor at a time when tourism agencies are struggling to meet the travel desires of thousands of tourists who are tired of the restrictions of the Corona pandemic.

The newspaper pointed out in today's report that the severe labor shortage in the tourism sector during the peak season due to the exodus of workers during the closures in 2020 and the partial and little recovery over the past year has forced tourism operators in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal to increase prices and cut some services.

In turn, the President of the Italian National Federation for Travel and Tourism, Marina Lalli, said that the shortage of labor has become the number one problem facing the sector after many workers who were granted leave or lost their jobs during the epidemic decided to leave the sector, explaining that tourism jobs in Europe decreased by 9.3 percent in 2020, according to The World Travel and Tourism Council.

Laly added that with the outbreak of the Omicron mutant of Corona in late 2021, the demand for new employees has decreased significantly, as many employees have moved to the jobs of order delivery, transportation, construction, warehousing and other jobs less affected by seasonality or the risk of another wave of the Corona virus.

Local organizations and trade unions in Europe have called for more than 400,000 jobs to be created in the tourism industry across the eurozone countries, stressing that staffing shortages have strained many hotels and restaurants to the limit and forced others to close as tourists travel to resorts. Southern Europe bears the brunt of escalating jet fuel costs and severe disruption at many airports.

Follow Sana's news on Telegram https://t.me/SyrianArabNewsAgency