The tourism sector closed July with 100,099 more members of Social Security than the previous month, which brings the total number of contributors linked to tourism activities to 2,314,971, according to the data included in the Report on Employment in Tourism prepared by Turespaña, dependent on the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and released today.
In relative terms, membership increased by 4.5% in July compared to the previous month, which shows a gradual recovery in tourism after the end of the state of alarm on June 21 and the borders were gradually opened.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Fernando Valdes, stressed that "the data reflect the gradual recovery of the tourism sector after the negative impact of the pandemic" and recalled that "as of July 28, 516,191 tourism workers remained protected by an ERTE, a system that has been proven effective to sustain companies and contain the destruction of employment in the sectors hardest hit by COVID-19 ”.
In absolute figures, the year-on-year fall in affiliates linked to tourism activities in July 2020 was 302,889 workers, when in the whole of the Spanish economy there were 616,496 people. The year-on-year drop in discharged workers is moderated compared to June, which has fallen by 11.6% in the sector as a result of the impact caused by COVID-19. Employment in this sector represented 12.4% of the total number of Social Security affiliates in July.
Affiliation by sectors and communities
The growth in affiliation in the month of July compared to June was recorded in the hotel business (94,944 more registrations) and in other tourist activities (5,641 more registrations), not so in travel agencies, which lost 486 workers.
On the other hand, the year-on-year loss of affiliates was recorded in all tourism branches. The hospitality industry decreased by 233,765 workers (142,180 fewer affiliates in food and beverage services and 91,585 less in accommodation services); other tourism activities decreased by 59,849 affiliates and travel agencies lost 9,275 employees.
By Autonomous Communities, the greatest decreases in employment in the hotel industry, travel agencies and tour operators in the last twelve months occurred in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Andalusia, the Valencian Community, the Community of Madrid and the Canary Islands. These six autonomous communities represent 81.9% of the absolute interannual fall, although the number of affiliates fell in all the autonomous communities.
In relative terms, the interannual declines in the Balearic Islands (27.2%) and Catalonia (16.1%) stand out.
