The recovery of the hospitality industry in Spain goes windy. At the beginning of 2022, this sector increased its sales by 100.7% in relation to the same dates in 2021, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
It should be remembered that this sector was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, which closed 2020 with a 50% drop in turnover and the closure of more than 8,000 restaurant spaces, according to the Central Business Directory (DIRCE). By the end of 2021, the sector had managed to increase its turnover by 33%, although Christmas was paralyzed and did not allow the sector a clear recovery.
Experts state that 2022 will be the beginning of the recovery after Covid 19, which has hit the sector hard for these two years and will not return to its pre-pandemic normality until 2023. “The adaptation of the sector to the new digitized service methods, exploited as a result of the pandemic, has been one of the keys to its survival and possible recovery”, Last.app sources say. In fact, in 2021 the hotel industry increased its online activity by 58% and currently 38% of Spanish businesses already invoice more than 1/4 of their sales through digital means, according to a study carried out by Meta.
Positive prospects at Easter
According to data from Hospitality in Spain, more than 1.7 million people work in the world of restoration. In the words of Antonio Garamendi, president of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), “The hospitality industry is an essential engine for the national economy.” Along the same lines, a study by ManpowerGroup predicts that in 2022 the recovery of the labor market will intensify, led by the hospitality sector, which will increase its job offer by 3.6%.
The expectations placed on the gradual recovery of the sector, commented on during the II National Hospitality Forum held last February, also emphasize the arrival of good weather and the subsequent Holy Week, which can mean success for businesses, since until now in many cases the terraces have accounted for 50% of the turnover. Digitization, once again, continues to be the portal to new entrepreneurial opportunities in the sector that will generate clear benefits, especially with home deliveries and the rise of POS terminals to optimize business management.
In this sense, Last.app, the Spanish startup dedicated to the creation of software for restaurant management, has added to its wide portfolio of products (POS software, delivery integrator, online store, etc.) a new management system for reservations called LastBookings. With this new free tool, all restaurants that wish to can include a section on their business website where customers can reserve a table through the Internet and social networks, taking better advantage of the recovery of the sector.
