Tourism won almost 25,000 workers until March even though the delay of Holy Week made Mella in the hospitality industry
The tourism sector He has won 24,625 workers until Marchaccording to tourist employment data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Tourism and Turespaña. The delay of Holy Week has not avoided that they join with respect to the levels of social security affiliation last year – when the holidays fell at the end of March – although it has taken its toll on the hospitality industry, which has been the only branch of activity where employment has not grown. The thrust of travel agencies and other subsectors such as transport compensate for the slight fall in occupation in accommodation and food services.
The number of workers linked to the tourism sector reached 2.76 million in March of social security affiliates, which represents 13% of the total occupied in the country. Since the third month of 2024 the occupation has grown in this area 0.9%, a slight rise that maintains the trend of uninterrupted employment since June 2021.
“Without the effect of Holy Week, this March grew employment in the tourism sector”highlighted the Minister of the Branch, Jordi Hereu, who has appeared at the press conference after the Council of Ministers and has said to trust that the “good results” are maintained in the coming months. With the late Holy Week this year, the Government expects that in March and April Spain receive 15 million international tourists and a destination at 20,000 million euros, 9% and 13% more than last year for the same dates.
Despite the global growth of employment, evolution has not been positive in all branches of activity related to tourism. The subsector more affected by the delay of Holy Week has been that of the hospitality industry, where the volume of workers has descended in 13,745 people with respect to March 2024. It is an interannual decrease of just 0.8%, since this area uses 1.79 million people in Spain. Specifically, in the last year the accommodation services have lost 6,489 employed and those of food and drink, 7,256. The latter continue to concentrate the bulk of tourist employment with 1.42 million workers.
Instead, the slight setback of the hospitality has been compensated for job creation in the rest of the sector. Travel agencies have won 1,822 workerswhile the rest of the tourist activities total 36,548 occupied more than in March last year. This category includes, among others, people dedicated to the transport of travelers, museums or other artistic and show activities.
The Minister of Tourism has highlighted not only the increase in affiliation in the sector, but also the creation of “quality” employment with a “social impact.” 81.9% of those employed in March were wage earners, compared to 18.1% of self -employed workers. Travel agencies is the branch of activity where the volume of self -employed workers has grown most, which has risen 4.7% compared to March 2024. Even so, 70.8% of those who work in these types of companies are salaried, with a total of 49,367 workers on behalf of others.
By autonomous communities, tourist employment increased in March in interannual terms in four communities: Madrid, Canary Islands, Basque Country and Navarra They respectively added 5.637, 4,181, 842 and 17 busy more than last year by the same dates. On the other hand, the greatest descents occurred in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, which have respectively lost 7,196 and 6,845 workers. Andalusia and Galicia followed them, where tourist employment backed up at 3,731 and 1,333 people.
Geopolitical tensions
Facing the coming months, it remains to be seen How geopolitical tensions with the United States can affect the Spanish tourism sector. At the moment, the Alliance for Tourist Excellence (Excellent) says it has detected “specific cancellations” of travel from Spain to the other side of the Atlantic, although not in reverse or generalized. “Everything is very provisionalwe have to give ourselves a greater temporary horizon to see if the trend is consolidated, “hereu has nuanced on Tuesday, which stressed that the interest of Americans for traveling to Spain remains intact.” For now there is an increase in US visitors. We generate an attractiveness that has not been affected, “he stressed.
The minister has highlighted the tourist leadership of Spain, which in 2024 received a record of 94 million international visitors who disbursed 126,000 million euros. “We are the second country over international tourists and income, and therefore in spending at destination,” said Hereu, which has valued the increase in tourist expenditure especially in the middle and low season. “We want to maintain international leadership to be references in transformation Towards the model of the triple social, environmental and economic sustainability, “he added, at the same time that he has emphasized the need to bet on” deconcentrating destinations, diversifying experiences and products, de -stationalizing the activity over year, digitizing and redistributing the benefits of tourism in the territories and socially. “
