Unwanted tourists boost Spain and Mallorca’s jobs and economy

Regions like Mallorca which are making global headline because of its anti-mass tourism protests can’t have their cake and eat it. Spain’s unemployment rate dropped in the second quarter, official data showed on Friday, as a continued tourism boom added jobs in the services sector. The jobless rate fell to 11.3 per cent between March and June in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy, down from 12.3 per cent in the previous three months, national statistics institute INE said in a statement.

The services sector saw the biggest drop in the number of job seekers with nearly 200,000 fewer than in the first quarter but unemployment also dropped in oththe er sectors, including construction, industry and agriculture, it added. The total number of people employed in Spain rose by 434,700 people in the second quarter from a quarter earlier to hit a new record of 21.68 million.

And, the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of Mallorca (Pimem) has assessed as “very positive” the data from the Labour Force Survey (EPA) although it has warned that companies are having “many difficulties” to complete their workforces and find qualified personnel. This is what the president of Pimem, Jordi Mora, said this Friday after the publication of the figures from the Labour Force Survey (EPA) of the National Statistics Institute (INE) for the second quarter in the Balearics.

“We have had more than ten consecutive months with historic records in the Balearics,” he said of job creation, attributing the reasons to the “good tourist season” and, at the same time, to “the inertia of the previous year”, when there was high employment and spending in the sector.

Even so, Mora pointed out that there are “two pillars that are failing” in the Balearic economy, such as “the high cost of housing and the lack of qualified personnel”. Therefore, he suggested that education should be a strategic axis for employment policies, since, as he exemplified, “it is not easy” to cover the medical leaves that occur in small and medium-sized companies, which causes, he said, “a catastrophe in the organisation”.

And, The United Kingdom continues to be the main source market, with more than 6.3 million tourists between January and May, a 10.6% increase. It is followed by France, with 4.42 million (+13.2%) and Germany, with 4.41 million (+14.7%). Of particular note is the growth of the Belgian market, with 20.3%, and Ireland, with an increase of almost 19%.

During the first five months of 2024, the communities that received the most tourists were Catalonia (7.1 million and an increase of 13.1% compared to the same period in 2023), the Canary Islands (6.5 million and an increase of 10.7%) and Andalusia (4.9 million, up 12.9%). In terms of spending, the main countries of origin in May were the United Kingdom (with 18.8% of the total), Germany (12.1%) and France (8.5%).

Likewise, spending by tourists resident in the United Kingdom increased by 16.2% in annual rate, that of those from Germany by 18.% and that of those from France by 17.7%. In the first five months of 2024, the UK was the country with the highest cumulative expenditure (17.1% of the total). It was followed by Germany (13%) and France (7.8%).