it Is common to hear that Spain is a country of bars, but according to the Spanish Federation of Hospitality, becoming less and less. In 2017, for the seventh consecutive year, reduced the number of drinking establishments, up to a total of 184.430. Since 2010, there are 18.269 local less and less, and in 2018 the reduction will continue. It is a phenomenon that the association attributed not only to the crisis, but also to demographic processes such as rural depopulation or the ageing of the population. However, the horeca sector, which also includes restaurants and hotels, it grows. Won the 5,000 establishments in the past year and its production amounted to 129.450 million, a 4.9% more. He also won workers, 2.1%, to 1,63 million employed.
Between Emilio Gallego, secretary general of hotel management in Spain, the new brand of what is now called the Spanish Federation of Hospitality (FEHR), and its president, José Luis Yzuel, have made a diagnosis of the situation of the bars in Spain. “The real estate bubble was a repositioning of the inhabitants in the cities. The new neighborhoods attracted population and this has led to the transfer of local to these areas and the closure of many small local traditional neighborhoods that were older,” said Gallego.
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“These new premises are in general larger [exemplified with the closure of the stores of power absorbed by supermarkets] and with an offer that is more oriented towards the new consumers,” he said, putting as example the madrid district of Tables, accumulating a diverse range of restoration, while districts with population ageing, that in addition consumes less, lose local. “These bars, if they do not change and attract new audiences, and their future is very dark”, has sentenced Yzuel.
“And then there is the demographic decline of rural areas. The village pub was accumulating services —shop, lottery administration…— but if there are not people in the villages, in the end the bars close,” said Gallego. Also have been highlighted in this process the growth of chains arranged opposite to the decline of the independent establishments.
Thus, the census of the bars is reduced to 184.430 in 2017, the seventh consecutive year of decline. In 2018 you will also fall “slightly”, according to forecasts of the organization. In fact, the federation is of the opinion that this decline is reaching a “point of stabilization”.
The decline of the bars is compensated by the growth of the rest of catering establishments, including restaurants, hotels and businesses dedicated to catering. At the end of 2017, had 309.625, 1.5% more than a year before. It was the third straight year of growth, although it still has not been recovered, the figure for 2010 (314.185). Increased the number of restaurants and food stalls (3.8 per cent, up 76.492), companies cátering and other prepared foods (5.6%, up to 16.617), as well as hotels (by 4.1% up to 15.737), apartments and rural houses (8.5%, up 14.091), campsites (1.4%, up to 1.183), and other formats.
All of these companies moved a turnover that amounted to 129.450 million in 2017, 4.7% more than in 2016, according to the data of National accounts of the INE collected by the organization. In this figure include the intermediate consumption (goods and services in the production process of the hospitality industry), which account for 41.5% of the total, and the Gross Value Added. Of that money, the restoration is supposed to 76.5% and the rest, accommodation services, which grew at a faster pace by the pull of tourism. Despite some deterioration in the confidence of the entrepreneurs of the sector, the Federation expects that this year the turnover will grow at a 3%, less than in the previous two years.
Employment
Gallego and Yzuel have highlighted the weight of the hospitality industry in the employment in Spain. According to the data of the Confederation, taken from the Survey of Active Population, the sector employed on average in 2017 to 1.637.100 workers, over 33,000 more (2.1%) than in the previous year. Represents 8.7% of the entire occupied population. “Hospitality is a sector intensive in human resources, is a sector that fulfils a social function,” noted Gallego, which gives employment to youth, immigrants and other sectors of the population with high rates of unemployment. In addition, galicia has wanted to claim the “role of employment in regions like the Canary islands or the Balearic islands [where it occupies a very high rates of the population], by the weight of the tourism sector, and the fixing of population in rural areas.”
The dark side of this employment is temporary. A 39, 3% of workers in the sector are on temporary contracts, four tenths more than in 2016, compared to a temporality of 26.7% in the overall labour market. In restoration, the rate rises to 40.3 per cent and remains at 36.9% in accommodation. 74.1% of the contracts in 2017 were full-time, a percentage that has fallen from 82.4% a decade ago. 53.3% of the jobs are occupied by women.
