X-ray of the Catalan tourism sector: more companies and smaller ones

BarcelonaTourism contributes nearly 12% to Catalonia's GDP, the indicator used worldwide to measure an economy's size and growth. However, who generates this wealth? The sector is made up of 133,752 companies and employs 451,990 people, according to the latest data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat), corresponding to the end of 2023.

Idescat admits there are "difficulties" in defining what is part of the tourism sector and what is not. For the statistical body, it is determined by whether tourists are the ones consuming the goods and services. It classifies companies into three main categories: transport, hospitality, and others, a category that includes everything from real estate activities to artistic ones, including gambling and sports activities.

According to calculations by ARA, one in ten companies focused on tourism has been established since the pandemic. In other words, there are 11% more companies than in 2019. In contrast, the number of employed people has remained practically stable, decreasing by 0.12%. Compared to 2016, a reference year for defining the exit from the crisis, tourism accounts for 19% more companies and 12% more employees.

From Pimec Turisme, Daniel Brasé emphasizes that it is a sector "extraordinarily dynamic from an entrepreneurial point of view," but highlights that "growth is concentrated in micro-enterprises, small businesses, and self-employed individuals, rather than in expanding workforces." In contrast, Josep-Francesc Valls, a professor at the business school of Pompeu Fabra University (UPF-BSM), believes that the increase in the number of companies "has nothing to do" with business concentration. "One can have several instrumental companies for tax reasons that, for example, have no employees," he warns.

Real estate activities

The increase in the number of companies compared to before the pandemic has been concentrated in the category of "other tourism services", which have grown by 20.8% (up to 73,163), while those in the hospitality segment rose by 1.52% (47,412) and those in transport fell by 0.75% (12,878). Consequently, Valls and Brasé agree in pointing out that tourism "has become a true service economy, much more transversal and diversified", in Brasé's words.

Real estate activities group the highest number of companies: 47,785. They represent practically 35.73% of companies in the entire tourism sector, despite concentrating just over 11% of employees – around 50,700 people – far from the 114,000 in the catering industry. They are dedicated to the management of tourist use housing (HUT), apartments and second homes, as well as real estate promotion and property administration, among others.

"This data should not be interpreted as a snapshot of tourist use housing, but as a much broader set of economic activities related to the real estate market that, under certain circumstances, also serve tourist demand," warns Brasé. They have the lowest occupancy rate in the entire statistics: 1.06 people per company. "Mostly, these are holding companies, small businesses or self-employed individuals," adds Valls. Although practically two out of ten companies in this category have been created since the pandemic, employees have fallen by 12%.

Gambling and catering

The companies that have grown the most since 2019 are those dedicated to gambling and betting (95%), followed by rental activities (83.54%) and tourist accommodation (34.38%). They are also the ones leading job creation, albeit with different proportions: gambling companies closed 2023 with 36% more employees than before the pandemic, and rental activity companies with 20%.

Despite the relative increases, the restaurant sector "continues to be the main driver of employment in Catalan tourism", claims Brasé. On the other hand, passenger land transport companies (-22%), museums (-14%), and travel agencies (-12%) are destroying jobs.

Business size, in the spotlight

Companies in the tourism sector show great diversity in size: while those dedicated to real estate activities register the minimum number of employees, barely exceeding one person, air and sea transport companies have an average of 57 employees. According to Valls, there are "two major business models", a "duality" that constitutes "one of the main characteristics of Catalan tourism".

Pimec values that "a low ratio does not necessarily imply less economic efficiency, but a different business model". The UPF-BSM expert considers that "without an increase in business size, it will be difficult to increase productivity", and Brasé is in favor of reconciling "a more competitive model" with the fact that "micro, small and medium-sized enterprises continue to lead wealth creation".