Hotels Assert Themselves as 'Refuges' in Times of Crisis

The Hotel and Tourism Business Association of the Valencian Community (Hosbec) has advocated for traditional establishments in a context where new business models, such as tourist apartments, technology with artificial intelligence as an employment challenge, and increasing limitations on the sector are prevalent. The president of the Benidorm hotel association, Federico Fuster, has highlighted the value of hotels as an "essential service" to society, serving as "refuges for the population, islands of safety amidst uncertainty, and places where we protect fundamental rights such as food, security, health, and even information," in clear reference to the behaviour of hotel companies during the Campanar fire, the dana, the energy blackout, or the covid pandemic.

Fuster addressed his partners in these terms during the Hosbec General Assembly held this Friday in Benidorm. The event gathered over 200 entrepreneurs, authorities, executives, and tourism professionals.

He continued, as an "essential service," asking authorities to consider them: "Let us not have to panic or beg for favours to refuel our diesel generators and allow us to participate in processes where we can be of social utility." To the term "happiness industry," coined by the historic entrepreneur and hotel president Toni Mayor, the current head of Hosbec added "security industry in times of difficulty."

The most important challenge facing the sector is human capital. For the hotel president, "it is currently our greatest concern, knowing that tourism involves a lot of human interaction and contact." He admitted that mechanisation and digitalisation "can be a significant help, but we need to fill jobs with training, capacity, commitment, and responsibility," something currently lacking. Entrepreneurs, for their part, commit to "creating an attractive, desirable, and suitable work environment for workers to choose us."

Regarding municipal limitations on the construction of new hotels, the president of the association sends a message to local government officials with restrictive policies: "Movement and globalisation have elevated the hotel sector as a necessity," that "essential service" mentioned earlier.

"There is no industry or productive sector that functions without hotels. Not taking advantage of the favourable currents we are now navigating is, possibly, losing precious opportunities to consolidate the long-term future. And investment does not understand endless deadlines, years and years of waiting. Investment moves, it goes where it is welcomed."