Tourism employment exceeds 2.85 million national insurance contributors after increasing by 3.5% in October

In autumn, tourism employment continues to show positive growth figures. The number of contributors in this sector in October amounted to 2,855,255, an increase of 3.5% compared to the same period last year, according to data from Turespaña. In the tenth month of the year, contributors linked to tourism activities increased in absolute terms by 96,854 workers. In relation to the labour market of the country as a whole - which grew by 2.7% year-on-year this month - tourism employment accounted for 13.2% of the total number of registered workers.

In October, the change in contributors was positive across all branches of tourism. In hotels and catering there was an increase of 49,020 workers (18,399 in accommodation services and 30,621 in food and beverage services), while in travel agencies there was an increase of 1,691 workers. In other tourism activities the increase was 46,143 workers.

Notable rise in the number of employees in the sector

The number of employees in the tourism sector, one of the variables used by the Ministry of Industry and Tourism to evaluate the improvement in the quality of tourism employment, and which represents 82.3% of the total number of contributors in this sector, showed a significant increase of 4.1% in October with respect to the same month of the previous year.

By branch of activity, salaried employment increased in both travel agencies and tour operators (2.4%) as well as in hotels and restaurants (3.2%), and within the latter, it increased by 5% in accommodation services and by 2.7% in food and beverage services.

Self-employment in tourism, which represents 17.7% of the total number of contributing workers, increased 1%. A slight increase of 0.4% was observed in the hotel and catering business and a year-on-year increase of 2.7% 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 67.1% of the total number of national insurance contributions in the area of tourism - the number of contributors increased in the tenth month of the year by 2.7% in year-on-year terms.

Tourism employment rises in all communities

In October, employment in hotels and catering and travel agencies and tour operators as a whole increased in all regions.

In absolute figures, the highest increase was in Andalusia, while in relative terms the highest increase was in the Balearic Islands (8.9%), followed by Andalusia (3.8%).

Non official translation