Holiday warning for Spain and Portugal as hotels thrown into chaos
HOTELS in Spain and Portugal have been thrown into chaos due to staff shortages ahead of the holiday season.
The hospitality industry is currently seeing huge staff shortages, which could create problems at hotels, bars and restaurants.
Tourism bosses are scrambling to fill the estimated 200,000 vacancies in holiday hotspots across the country.
The issue comes as many Brits gear up for a summer holiday to places like Spain and Portugal, which are still feeling the after-effects of Covid.
Thousands of workers left when international travel shut down due to the pandemic, and many have not returned.
Desperate employers are now offering incentives like bigger salaries, free accommodation and cash bonuses to fill vacancies.
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Gabriel Escarrer, chief executive of Majorca-based hotel chain Melia, said the experience was like having to start the whole sector again.
He told : “Many employees have decided to move to other sectors, so we are starting an industry from scratch and we have to fight for talent.”
Official data suggests staff working in bars and restaurants have seen wages rise by 60 per cent, but the tourism industry is still one of the lowest-paid sectors.
Escarrer’s company have started providing accommodation to some staff in order to tempt that back into the hospitality sector.
The issue of staff shortages is a particularly urgent issue in Spain and Portugal, where tourism accounts for 13 and 15 per cent respectively of the economic output before the pandemic.
Both countries have also found it slightly more difficult to recruit keen UK staff after Brexit.
Tighter restrictions on employing UK seasonal workers has meant Brits cannot as easily fly over to Europe and help fill employment gaps.
Issues of staff shortages come on top of other potential problems for travellers, including possible strike staff at airports.
There has also been thousands of cancelled flights due to staff shortages at airports
