Record forecasts for the hospitality industry this summer

The hospitality sector expects to grow by up to 7% for the remainder of the year, in a context of growth for the restaurant industry, and to experience a summer with record numbers of tourists. This was stated at the 20th Aecoc Horeca Congress held in Madrid

The hotel and catering sector expects to grow by up to 7% for the remainder of the year, in a context of growth for the restaurant industry, and to experience a summer with record numbers of tourists. This was stated at the 20th Aecoc Horeca Congress held in Madrid.

At the annual event, which brings together top managers, businessmen and entrepreneurs from companies throughout the hospitality value chain, the sector forecasts that it could grow by between 5 and 7% at the end of the year. Despite these good figures, it warns that the second half of the year will be one of uncertainty due to the fall in household savings and the increase in current expenditure, such as on housing.

These record forecasts for the summer season are contextualised in a moment of growth in the restaurant industry, which in 2022 grew by 30%, contributing 3.8% to GDP, and is approaching pre-Covid levels.

According to Martínez Fontano, families are devoting more and more resources to current expenses: he claims that 35.6% of the Spanish household budget is already allocated to housing payments.

Good season in the hospitality industry, but with caution

For his part, the executive vice-president of Exceltur, José Luis Zoreda, pointed out that tourism GDP in Spain between January and May was 11.5% higher than in 2019, due especially to foreign demand.

Zoreda agrees in predicting a second half of the year of economic slowdown that would affect the sector, although he considers that “Spain is not going to have a demand problem, but that it must consider how to maximise tourism revenue with more territorial and temporal balance and less environmental impact”.