Tourism employment saw its best February ever with 2.46 million national insurance contributors

In the last year, tourism employment has grown by 154,875 contributors and represents 12.2% of the total contributors in all sectors of the Spanish economy.

The Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, said that "these figures confirm the excellent start to the year for the tourism sector, with a complete recovery in employment and an unbeatable outlook for Easter, despite the context of uncertainty derived from the war in Ukraine and inflation".

Employment is growing in all branches of tourism

The change in contributors was positive in all branches of tourism. In other tourism activities, the increase was 60,257 workers, while in hotels and restaurants the increase was 88,990 contributors (54,254 in food and beverage services and 34,736 in accommodation services). In travel agencies, the increase was 5,628 workers.

In February, the number of salaried employees in the tourism sector, which represents 80.3% of the total workers in the sector, increased by 8.4% compared to the same month last year.

By branch of activity, salaried employment increased strongly in travel agencies and tour operators (12.4%) and in hotels and restaurants (7.8%), and within the latter, it increased by 6.1% in food and beverage services and by 14.4% in accommodation services.

Self-employed workers represent 19.7% of the total number of contributors and increased 0.3% in January.

The Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands are the Autonomous Communities where employment is growing the most

As was the case in January, all Autonomous Communities saw an increase in national insurance contributors linked to the tourism sector in February.

In absolute terms, the largest increases were in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, the Community of Madrid and the Valencian Community. In relative terms, the Canary Islands (11.1%) and the Balearic Islands (11.0%) had the highest increases.

Non official translation