It is going to be a hard winter; and not solely because of the temperatures, but more due to the lack of trade. All along Costa Tropical, hotel season closures will mean that 2,500 hotel beds will disappear, along with 800 jobs.
One of the prime drops in hotel guests has been the 25% reduction to Imserso, which is the government-subsidised holidays for pensioners during low season.
Many consider these cuts to have been drastically shortsighted; as not only does this service provide holidays for pensioners, who spend their meagre savings during these assisted breaks, but Imserso kept hotels open and hotel staff in employment – the hotels didn’t make any profit from it, but at least it kept them from going into debt. Now with the hotels closing for the winter, the Government is going to have to spend the money it made from the cuts on unemployment benefit, as well as losing tax and IVA income from the hostelry industry.
The result is that hotels that have traditionally weathered the winter have thrown in the towel and announced that they will be closing their doors come the New Year.
Last year, along our coast, 1,500 of the 7,260 beds amongst the 83 hotelier establishments were lost; this year, the figure has risen to 2,500 beds, or in other words 34% of the total!
The hotels that have traditionally closed are, Almuñécar’s Playa Cálida (650 beds), Motril’s Club Robinson (636), as well as smaller ones such as La Herradura’s Sol Los Fenicios and Hotel Almijara, and Almuñécar’s San Carlos. Another one, further down the coast, is Calahonda’s La Perla de Andalucía. But this year, for the first time, Almuñécar’s Bahía Tropical (506 beds) and Almuñécar Playa (454 beds).
Other hotels are considering closing, such as Best Alcázar in La Herradura, but the decision is yet to be taken by the hotel chain.
The saying, “every cloud has a silver lining” rings true for Hotel Carmen, which has received a small injection from the basement-garage fire, whose displaced residents are staying there. Whether this small influx will allow them to remain open after losing Imserso clients remains to be seen.
Again, last year saw 540 hotel workers with part-time contracts left without a job during the winter months, as well as 225 temping contracts – this year the figure will be closer to a global figure of 800.
The coast’s loss is Sierra Nevada’s gain, as the 4,000 seasonal jobs that the skiing resort generates each year will soak up some of the unemployed.
(News: Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)