European hotels and venues are desperately hiring staff as post-pandemic summer travel arrives
Top European hotel chains are hiring workers as many try to keep up with post-pandemic travel demand.
It comes as executives admit to years of underpaying hospitality staff, and pandemic lockdowns comes back to bite.
Thousands of workers left the hospitality industry when international travel shut down, and many have chosen not to return.
Tourism is an important factor for economic growth in many European countries.
In Greece, the sector employs 10 per cent of the country’s GDP. Meanwhile, in Portugal, 15 per cent of all economic output came from tourism before the pandemic.
“Many employees have decided to move to other sectors, so we are starting an industry from scratch and we have to fight for talent.”
Gabriel Escarrer, the CEO of hotelier Melia
It comes as the price of airline tickets and fuel costs rise. Willie Walsh is the ex-boss of British Airways, who says fuel prices were at record highs, and “oil is the single biggest element of an airline’s cost base”.
Oil prices have jumped as economies recover from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine impacts global supply chains.
