Tourism

Recovering Spanish hospitality sector boosts jobs

Insight Comment
With holidaymakers freer to travel this summer, it makes sense that hotels and other hospitality businesses have had to go on a hiring spree to cope with more tourism.

A resurgence in hiring in Spain’s hospitality sector helped bring down unemployment numbers during the third quarter.

Unemployment in the country fell to 14.57% in the third quarter from 15.26% in the previous one, according to news agency Reuters, citing data from the National Statistics Institute (INE). Around 359,300 jobs were added in the period.

One of the key reasons for the improvement was a 15% rise in employment across bars, restaurants and hotels with the tourism industry benefiting from a revival in international holidaymakers this summer.

Reuters noted that workers on the government-backed furlough scheme were not included in the data, indicating that the overall unemployment level was likely higher.

The rosier picture in Spain was reflected at last week’s Resort & Residential Hospitality Forum, where CEOs at some of Spain’s biggest hotel companies talked up the recovery.