Employment in the tourism sector is on the rise in Spain. This is certified by the data from Turespaña, the Spanish national institute for the promotion of tourism, which indicates that March closed with 157,035 more workers compared to the same period of the previous year, representing an increase of 7.1%. Therefore, the number of tourism workers has risen to 2,739,483. This figure represents 13.1% of the total Spanish labor market as a whole, which grew by 3% in the same month.
This significant increase demonstrates the dynamism of the Spanish tourism industry, which is “increasingly modern and cutting-edge,” as stated by the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, in commenting on Turespaña’s data.
By branch of activity, employment has increased in every segment, in travel agencies and tour operators (+9.2%) as well as in hotels and restaurants (+7.5%). In absolute terms, this translates to 5,415 new wage workers in travel agencies, 35,593 in accommodation services, and 71,004 in catering. Alongside the growth in the number of wage workers, there is also an increase in the number of entrepreneurs (+7.4% in travel agencies and +0.8% in hotel and catering activities) and self-employed workers (+1.8%).
At the territorial level, the positive data applies to all autonomous communities, with the exceptions of Ceuta and Melilla: Andalusia (+22,763 new workers) and Catalonia (+18,494) lead the happy moment that the Spanish tourism industry is experiencing. Following them are the Valencian Community (+12,740), Madrid (+11,481), and the Canary Islands (+11,206).
