The Diplomat
The Alliance for Excellence in Tourism (Exceltur) estimates that Spanish tourism will lose 98,753 million euros this year. In this way, the tourism employers’ association has raised by 19% the forecast of losses made in June, due to the “notable and growing worsening of business expectations, especially of external demand” as a result of the coronavirus.
In a press release, Exceltur explains that the revision of its calculations for the summer and the closing of 2020, which imply a loss of 15,620 million more than expected, is due to the fall in external demand derived from the restrictions “in cascade” since the end of July, from the main issuing countries.
Specifically, it estimates that the year will close with activity 64.7% less than in 2019 and ensures that these figures will explain more than half of the fall of 15.1% of the entire Spanish economy for this year.
By communities, the most affected will be Catalonia in absolute terms (19,000 million euros less tourist activity, 56% less than in 2019) and the Balearic Islands (12,717 million less, 80.5% less).
According to Exceltur, these figures show that the tourism sector is the most damaged of all those in the Spanish economy, as it has not been able to produce, store or sell its services for months.
Likewise, according to the operator’s forecasts, “an impact of unprecedented dimensions is anticipated at the end of the summer on employment”. At the end of July and in the middle of the season, there were already 823,000 fewer employees (37.4% less than the 2.2 million in July 2019).
That is to say, and according to Exceltur -which refers to data from SEPE-, 517,000 jobs were sustained thanks to the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE), and 306,000 members were less due to drops in the number of contracts (67% in accommodation, 87% in travel agencies, 81% in transport, 46% in catering and 45.2% in leisure premises).
