Spain’s Paradores Hotel Chain to Lay Off 350 Workers

Spain's Paradores hotel chain, a state-funded iconic product of Spanish tourism, will lay off 350 workers. The Paradores chain, which operates hotels at historic locations and dates back to 1926, said in November it would lay off 644 workers and close up to seven sites after occupancy rates fell from 70 percent in 2007 to 52 percent in 2012.

But after five days of negotiations with unions, owner Paradores de Turismo agreed to more than halve the number of layoffs and limited closures to a single hotel. The Paradores, which lost 77 million euros ($100 million) in 2011, will also cut salaries and close some of its more than 90 hotels out of season.

Paradores are scattered across Spain in castles, monasteries and mansions. The chain said it expected 2012 losses to have widened to 107 million euros ($140 million), despite cost-saving measures it said it took to make it more competitive.

Staff went on strike on a bank holiday weekend in December to protest the original restructuring plan. Paradores said the revised plan was effective from January and would help the company "face the immediate future from a perspective of change and recovery."

Tourism is one of Spain's very few growth sectors and accounts for 11 percent of economic output. Last year, 14.4 million tourists visited the country in the peak month of August, up 4.2 percent on 2011.

Spanish companies have laid off workers in droves to battle a recession that has dragged on profits. Loss-making airline Iberia is currently locked in talks with unions over plans to fire 4,500 people.

On Thursday, data showed a 1.2 percent decline in registered jobless in December thanks to holiday hiring, but analysts were not optimistic of a change in trend in a crippled labor market in the new year.

According to what is generally considered a more reliable measure of joblessness, the country's official unemployment rate rose to 25 percent in the third quarter of 2012, the most recent period for which figures are available.

Source: Travel Pulse, http://www.travelpulse.com/spains-paradores-hotel-chain-to-lay-off-350-workers.html