In 15 days the summer holidays begin, against a background of inflation, loss of purchasing power, rising fuel prices but also the war in Ukraine. Despite this complicated context, the 2022 tourist season looks promising, it would even be better than the previous one. Two million additional French people will go on vacation this summer, and once again the French are in favor of France. There is also a massive return of foreign tourists. If the professionals of the sector are delighted, they say they are worried because of the problems linked to the lack of personnel.
Even though the cost of holidays has increased by 12%, reservations are up by 8%, as is the turnover of professionals, which has increased by 12%. The Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean are still the big winners, but the mountains and the countryside are increasingly in demand.
Good news for the sector with however a downside, warns Didier Arino, from the Protourisme consultancy: “ All the lights are green except for the difficulty in finding qualified personnel. Moreover, they are not even there, I want to say that all those who want to work in this sector are taken. The risk being a deterioration in the quality of service and this lack of staff is already costing us dearly. We at Protourisme estimate that the fact that restaurateurs limit the number of seats, the number of services offered to customers will already cost the destination France around 5 billion euros in lost turnover, due to the inability to have resource people to ensure quality of service. »
Despite recent wage increases in the catering sector, nearly 200,000 seasonal positions could thus be unfilled this summer, estimates the Union of Trades and Industries of the Hotel Industry. Customers will need to be patient.
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