"There is more supply than demand for employment and that is always bad and symptomatic of the existence of a latent problem," explains Luis Martí, president of the Provincial Association of Hospitality and Tourism Entrepreneurs (ASHOTUR). Martí calls the problem of lack of staff in the hospitality industry "endemic" and explains that these festive long weekends "will not be an exception."
The emerging business, but also the consolidated one, is looking for personnel. In Valencia, Ricard Camarena's restaurant needs waiters, as does chef Begoña Rodrigo's business, both of which have active job offers on various web portals. The Westin hotel and Only You also have vacancies open for hospitality positions. These are just some examples of a situation that "is a problem and has been worrying for a long time in the sector because it has an impact on the quality of the service," explains Víctor Pérez, president of the Federation of Leisure, Tourism, Gaming, Recreational Activities and Related Industries of the Valencian Community (Fotur). He says that "when we work with a professional of ten, we try to tie him to a floating template that we call for each event." It's not easy to get it, he admits.
He adds that the prospects for these bridges in leisure venues are also good, as they hope for good weather and they know that tourists, in addition to resting, will be interested in looking for plans. In the city of Valencia, this first bridge will not be missing, since the celebration of October 9 is especially relevant in the cap i casal, and the official events are joined by many other alternative events throughout the city.
Meanwhile, from the Business Confederation of Hospitality and Tourism of the Valencian Community (Conhostur), its president, Manuel Espinar, explains that after the summer there is some caution in the sector to see how it evolves in terms of employment demand. "We think that companies will face the bridges with the templates they have," explains Espinar, who removes the iron.
He recognizes that the issue of lack of workers "exists in the sector, especially after the pandemic since a lot of insecurity was generated and that led to the displacement of workers to other sectors," but warns that at this time this lack of personnel is occurring. also in other sectors, although it is in the hospitality industry "where the focus is most."
He also argues that the latest hiring figures for September in the hospitality industry of the Valencian Community have given "a positive result", since the hiring of personnel has fallen by 2.7% compared to the month of August, but in the annual comparison it has increased 4.8%. The reduction in hiring is generalized in all communities, since employment is not an exclusive Valencian problem, far from it. There are already voices that pointed out this summer that around 40,000 professionals were missing throughout the territory.
The Valencian Community faces two consecutive weekends of celebration, the first for October 9 and the second for the Pilar Festival, and the forecasts are good, with figures that stand at 80% occupancy, both in the coastline as well as in rural areas.
These are figures from a survey carried out by Turisme Comunitat Valenciana which establishes that, in the hotels on the coast, for this first long weekend, those in Benidorm have 93.3% reservations; The hotels on the coast of Valencia start with reservations close to 54.6%; the city of Valencia estimates an occupancy of 82.7%; while the hotels on the Alicante coast, not including Benidorm, foresee an occupancy of more than 84.3% and those on the Castellón coast of 68.7%.
Furthermore, the survey shows that for all the hotels in the interior of the Valencian Community, occupancy for the 9th of October bridge amounts to 74.9%. Thus, hotels in the interior of the province of Castellón have occupancy expectations of 69.5%; In the interior of the province of Valencia, hotel reservations are at 87.3%; while the hotels in the interior of Alicante have 61.4% reserved for these days.
If the forecast comes true, it would be a good continuation of the figures that hoteliers contributed this week. The Hosbec employers' association assured on Wednesday that the last days of September "have put the finishing touch to a spectacular month" and they consider that this month already has "little to envy" the month of August. The summer average has been 90% occupancy in Benidorm, 85.9% in Costa Blanca, 90% in the province of Valencia and 81.7% in Castellón.
