Employment in the tourism sector Tourism stands at over 3.18 million workers, up 5.4% compared to the second quarter of 2025

In the second quarter of this year, the tourism sector recorded 3,187,119 employed workers, representing a 5.4% increase compared to the same period in 2025.

Between April and June 2026, according to data published by Turespaña, tourism-related activities registered 162,772 more employees than in the same quarter of the previous year. During this quarter, employees in the tourism sector accounted for 14% of total employment in the Spanish economy.

In addition, the unemployment rate in the tourism sector stood at 7.5%, 0.5 percentage points lower than in the same quarter of the previous year.

The number of employees continues to grow

In this second quarter of the year, the main tourism activities experienced growth, with the exception of travel agencies, which saw an 18.4% decline; this drop is not directly attributable to actual employment levels but rather - as has been the case in recent months with tourism affiliation data - to changes introduced in the CNAE (National Classification of Economic Activities) codes. The increase in the hospitality sector was 4.5%, due to positive growth in both accommodation services (9.2%) and food and beverage services (2.8%).

The number of employees in the tourism sector during this period amounted to 2,715,123, which is a year-on-year increase of 5.3%. This continues the trend of year-on-year increases seen over the previous twenty quarters. Increases in salaried employment were observed in passenger transport (3.9%), hospitality (4.1%) and other tourism activities (12.1%). Within the hospitality sector, both accommodation and food and beverage services saw increases. Among other tourism-related activities, travel agencies saw a 23.4% decline.

Meanwhile, the number of foreign workers in the tourism sector rose to 793,114 in the second quarter (an increase of 9.4%).

Increase in permanent contracts

The number of salaried employees in the tourism sector with permanent contracts (84.5% of the total) increased by 5.7% year-on-year, marking the twentieth consecutive rise. At the same time, the number of employees with temporary contracts rose by 3%.

In this regard, the temporary employment rate in the tourism sector stood at 15.5%, down 0.3 percentage points from the same period the previous year. The total temporary employment rate in the Spanish economy stood at 15.1%.

In terms of working hours, full-time employees accounted for 75.5% of all employees, a 5.6% increase. The number of part-time employees grew by 4.2% and accounted for 24.5%.

Meanwhile, there were 471,996 self-employed people in the tourism sector, representing a 6% increase compared with the same period last year.

Ceuta, Melilla and the Basque Country: the regions with the highest growth rates

In terms of territorial distribution, the number of employed people increased in fourteen of the Autonomous Communities, including Andalusia, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, and fell in the rest, including Catalonia and the Canary Islands.

Ceuta and Melilla, with 27.7%, recorded the highest growth, followed by the Basque Country, with 15.5%, and the Balearic Islands, with 15.2%. The sharpest fall in employment was recorded in Extremadura, where it fell by 15.3%, followed by Cantabria (which fell by 8.5%).

Non official translation