Spain: Tourism employment exceeds 3 million for the first time outside the traditional high season

International

In the second quarter of 2025, the tourism sector recorded 3,024,347 people in employment — a 2% increase compared with the same period in 2024 — marking the first time that tourism employment has surpassed the 3-million mark outside the months traditionally considered the high season.

Between April and June 2025, according to data published today by Turespaña, tourism-related activities registered 58,563 more employees than in the same quarter of the previous year. During this period, employment in tourism accounted for 13.6% of total employment in the Spanish economy. The unemployment rate in the sector stood at 8%, 1.2 percentage points lower than in the same quarter of the previous year, while the national unemployment rate was 10.3%.

Salaried employment continues to rise

In this second quarter, most major tourism activities experienced growth, with the exception of hospitality. In this subsector, employment fell by 1.3%, due to negative developments in food and beverage services (-0.5%) and accommodation services (-3.5%). In contrast, travel agencies recorded an 8.7% increase, while passenger transport rose by 4.6%.

Salaried employees in tourism during this period totalled 2,578,949, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 4.2%, continuing the upward trend for the sixteenth consecutive quarter. These employees showed growth in passenger transport (8.1%), hospitality (1.4%) and other tourism activities (9.9%). Within hospitality, accommodation services declined, while food and beverage services increased. Within other tourism activities, travel agencies saw a 13.1% rise. The salaried employment rate (salaried employees/total employed) reached 85.3%, 1.8 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of the previous year.

Full-time work on the rise

The number of salaried employees in the tourism sector with a permanent contract (84.2%) increased by 4.6% year-on-year, marking the sixteenth consecutive rise. Salaried employees with a temporary contract increased by 2.4%.

As a result, the rate of temporary employment (temporary salaried employees/total salaried employees) in the tourism sector stood at 15.8%, 0.3 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year. In terms of working hours, full-time salaried employees accounted for 75.2% of the total, increasing by 4.3%.

Meanwhile, the number of self-employed workers in tourism was 445,398, a 9.3% decrease compared with the same period in 2024. Declines were recorded in hospitality (-14.5%) and passenger transport (-7.8%), while other tourism activities saw an increase of 6.3%.

Madrid and Andalusia lead growth

In terms of regional distribution, the number of employed persons increased in eleven autonomous communities. Among the main communities, employment rose in Madrid (8.3%), Andalusia (6.5%), Catalonia (2.4%) and the Canary Islands (1.4%), while it fell in the Valencia region (-1.3%) and the Balearic Islands (-10.7%).