Tourism employment exceeds 2.92 million national insurance contributors after increasing by 2.2% in September

After the end of the summer, tourism employment continues to show positive growth figures. The number of contributions in this industry in September amounted to 2,925,229, an increase of 2.2% compared to the same period last year, according to figures from Turespaña. In the ninth month of the year, contributors linked to tourism activities increased in absolute terms by 62,998 workers. In relation to the labour market of the country as a whole - which grew by 2.3% year-on-year this month - tourism employment accounted for 13.5% of the total number of registered workers.

In September, the change in contributors was positive across all branches of tourism. In hotels and catering there was an increase of 25,977 workers (13,148 in accommodation services and 12,829 in food and beverage services), while in travel agencies there was an increase of 1,415 workers. In other tourism activities the figure increased by 35,606 workers.

The number of employees grows faster than that of self-employed people

The number of employees in the tourism industry, one of the variables used by the Ministry to evaluate the improvement in the quality of tourism employment, and which represents 82.6% of the total number of contributors in this industry, increased by 2.5% in September with respect to the same month of the previous year. By branch of activity, salaried employment increased in both travel agencies and tour operators (1.6%) as well as in hotels and restaurants (1.6%), and within the latter, it increased by 2.9% in accommodation services and by 1.1% in food and beverage services.

Self-employment in tourism, which represents 17.4% of the total number of contributing workers, increased by 0.8%. A slight increase of 0.2% was observed in the hotel and catering business and a year-on-year increase of 3.2% in the number of self-employed workers was observed in travel agencies.

Combining the numbers for hotels and catering and travel agencies/tour operators - industries that account for 68.5% of the total number of national insurance contributions in the area of tourism - the number of contributors increased in the ninth month of the year by 1.4% in year-on-year terms.

The Canary Islands and the Valencian Community - the fastest growing regions

In the month of September, employment in the fields of hotel and catering and travel agencies/tour operators increased across all regions except Castile-La Mancha, Navarra, Extremadura and Aragon.

In absolute figures, the largest increase was in Andalusia (7,527 more contributors), while in relative terms the largest increase was in the Canary Islands (2.6%) and the Valencian Community (2.5%).

Non official translation