The staff crisis could be a “post-war syndrome” for all Mediterranean beach resorts – Turkish hotels have complained about it in restaurants and bars on the Spanish coast. In the resort of Benidorm, whose entertainment establishments were no less famous than beaches in pre-pandemic times, pubs and restaurants have been forced to close sooner, and some even close because the resort suffers from an acute shortage of waiters.
Benidorm alone has about 4,000 vacancies. “This job is usually in demand because a waiter can earn 300 euros a month just for tips. The salary of a waiter in Benidorm is about 1,200 euros a month, “- said the Spanish media. But this year something went wrong: the resort is trying hard to fill jobs, but there are fears that in the summer about 2,000 vacancies will be filled. Bars and restaurants in Benidorm are closing early due to this problem.
Alex Frattini, a spokesman for the Benidorm Association of Bars, Restaurants, and Cafés, said: “We see that the problem is not money.” He added that after the pandemic, there are thousands of hospitality vacancies across Spain. The decline in demand is due to “poor working conditions, long working hours and low wages.”
Mar Valera, a representative of the Provincial Association of Hotel Business Entrepreneurs of Alicante, in turn, noted that so far he does not see a solution to the problem. “The solution will be to reduce the hours and the number of open doors, there is no other way.”