THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR: CONTRIBUTION TO GDP AND EMPLOYMENT

The hospitality sector includes  Accommodation and Food Service Activities. Accommodation, includes hotels and similar accommodation, holiday and other short-stay accommodation, camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks and other accommodation. Food and beverage service activities, includes restaurants and mobile food service activities, event catering and other food service activities and beverage serving activities?

Economic Contribution - Jobs, Growth and Taxes

The hospitality sector in Europe is an important contributor to the European economy, through its impact on employment, growth and tax contributions. It directly employs 10.2m people in Europe. Turnover across the hospitality sector is over €1.0tn, equal to approximately 8.1% of total economic output, with gross value added in the sector (the contribution it makes to economic growth) of more than €460bn, or 3.7% of GDP.

Wider Economic Contribution - Multiplier Effects

The sector supports around 16.6m jobs, representing 7.8% of the European workforce or one in every 13 jobs in Europe. As well as directly employing workers in enterprises operating in the hospitality sector, those enterprises support, indirectly, the activity in a broad supply chain, as well as the induced, general economic activity generated by employees in the sector. For example,the agricultural sector is notable as a significant contributor of raw materials for the hospitality sector i.e. constituent ingredients in restaurant food and beverages. As such the hospitality sector has a key role in supporting not just economic aims but also social objectives through support of rural and regional economies. While the significance of this varies across countries, there are considerable divides between rural and urban prosperity in a number of European countries and hence the contribution of hospitality enterprises is notable. Additional sectors that are linked to a successful and thriving hospitality sector include: transportation, tourism, culture, construction, and brewing.

As direct employers, the hospitality sector plays a fundamental role in supporting job creation across Europe. The sector provides jobs across the skills spectrum: from the highly qualified, to low-skilled and “breakthrough” jobs for those just entering or reentering the labour market. The sector provides many young people with their first employment experience, allowing them to enter the working world, providing vital experience and training, and opening the door to future jobs. Similarly the sector helps the unemployed to reintegrate into the working environment.

In terms of direct support for EU socio-economic aims, the hospitality sector is the largest employer of migrant labour in Europe. It also offers many groups, who can find labour market participation difficult (parents, students, rural workers, those with caring responsibilities) a flexible approach to working that can enable them to take a job whilst also pursuing other activities or meeting care responsibilities. This enables greater labour mobility and higher participation, contributing to a more flexible and responsive labour market that can adjust quickly to changing economic conditions.

Sector Contribution to GDP by Countries (Source: Eurostat and EY Calculations (July 2013)

1. Cyprus: 10.4%
2. Malta: 7.9%
3. Greece: 6.5%
4. Spain: 6.3%
5. Portugal: 5.9%
6. Austria: 5.6%
7. Croatia: 5.1%
8. Ireland: 4.5%
9. Italy: 4.4%
10. Bulgaria: 4.2%
11. France: 4.1%
12. Switzerland: 4.0%
13. Slovenia: 3.7%
14. United Kingdom: 3.6%
15. Czech Rep.: 3.1%
16. Estonia: 2.9%
17. Netherlands: 2.9%
18. Finland: 2.8%
19. Sweden: 2.8%
20. Germany: 2.7%
21. Turkey: 2.7%
22. Belgium: 2.6%
23. Hungary: 2.5%
24. Latvia: 2.3%
25. Denmark: 2.1%
26. Luxembourg: 2.1%
27. Norway: 2.1%
28. Romania: 2.1%
29. Slovakia: 2.1%
30. Lithuania: 1.8%
31. Poland: 1.7%

EU: 3.7%

Sector Contribution to Employment (Source: Eurostat and EY Calculations (July 2013)

1. Cyprus: 30.9%
2. Malta: 20.2%
3. Luxembourg: 15.2%
4. Portugal: 13.1%
5. Croatia: 12.7%
6. Ireland: 12.7%
7. Spain: 12.4%
8. Greece: 10.8%
9. Austria: 10.7%
10. United Kingdom: 9.4%
11. Denmark: 9.1%
12. Italy: 8.4%
13. Bulgaria: 8.2%
14. Switzerland: 7.8%
15. Germany: 7.6%
16. France: 6.6%
17. Netherlands: 6.6%
18. Slovenia: 6.5%
19. Czech Rep: 6.4%
20. Hungary: 6.1%
21. Belgium: 5.9%
22. Sweden: 5.7%
23. Estonia: 5.4%
24. Norway: 5.3%
25. Latvia: 5.0%
26. Romania: 4.9%
27. Finland: 4.8%
28. Slovakia: 4.1%
29. Lithuania: 4.0%
30. Turkey: 4.0%
31. Poland: 2.6%

EU: 7.8%