The tourist alliance Exceltur considers that the traveling “rage” installed throughout Europe since the end of March has exceeded the macroeconomic conditionsso that tourism GDP has already reached levels higher than those of 2019, before the pandemic, in the second quarter.
The recovery of the dammed up demand since the pandemic has first favored Canary Islandsat the beginning of the year, and from Easter to peninsular destinations and the Balearic Islands, while business and conference tourism (MICE) has recovered more strongly than initially expected.
However, this recovery in demand, with the consequent increase in business turnover, has not translated into “consistent” results due to the increase in costs (25% in energy, 16% in supplies and 7.5% in labor), as reflected in the Exceltur Perspectives report.
The final prices, he points out, have risen by an average of 7% and the businessmen point out that they have only been able to transfer 23.4% of the extra costs. In any case, Exceltur clarifies that this price increase is lower than that of the economy as a whole, which figures at 10.3% over 2019.
“It bothers us that we may be being instrumentalized with interested political readings, which say that the tourism sector is going to make a fortune.” They are “not at all rigorous” readings, the executive vice president of Exceltur said at the presentation of the report, Jose Luis Zoreda.
In the scenario there are additional problems with operations and personnel, given the “widespread” difficulty in Spain and Europe of hiring trained employees in base positions and at airports, ground service (“handling”) and hospitality, among others, as well as the low number of staff in key services for connectivity, such as police control at airports.
In terms of employment, the tourism sector reached pre-pandemic levels in June for the first time and fell by 46 points the temporary nature of the new contracts signed after the labor reform, above the economy as a whole, says Exceltur, which highlights the “business commitment to improving employment”.
Foreign demand has rebounded strongly in May and June thanks, above all, to the strong recovery of European tourism, and in particular from the countries of Central Europe (Holland, Austria and Luxembourg) along with the Eastern countries, despite the war in Ukraine.
Among the large issuers of tourists to Spain, the good performance of France stands out, “with a greater lag” in UK, Germany and Italy, while the United States pulls hard.