The Var ranks 6th department in number of tourism jobs

2023-06-10 05:45:00

Nearly 10%: this is what tourism weighed in direct employment in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in 2019. Precisely 124,000 jobs (not counting induced jobs) or 8.9% of commercial salaried employment , according to the study unveiled this Friday by INSEE in partnership with the Regional Tourism Committee (CRT). “Having numbers means you can’t move forward with a wet finger” commented François de Canson, its president.

Because the fine analysis of this reference year shows a real dynamic and especially intra-regional particularities. The Var is thus one of the ten French departments where tourism employment is the most developed since it represents more than 13%. In number of jobs, the department ranks 6th in France, with 29,800 jobs, behind the Alpes-Maritimes (more than 40,000) and the Bouches-du-Rhône (32,300) where the share of tourism in salaried employment merchant is much lower (5.1%). “The economy there is very diversified” comments Insee Paca.

A dependent economy?

Conversely, some areas of the Var are very dependent on tourism. Like the Gulf of Saint-Tropez: nearly 40% of salaried employment is touristic in Sainte-Maxime (compared to 8.5% in Toulon and 8.4% in Draguignan), as in Briançon in the Hautes-Alpes. This rate is only 15.6% in Cannes, where 21,700 people work in this sector. But the Var is also identified as capable of spreading out its tourist season, from March to November.

In the Alpes-Maritimes, although the peak is lower in July/August, activity remains sustained until December. And unsurprisingly, the accommodation and catering businesses are the driving forces behind this dynamism. These two sectors represent 52% of salaried tourism jobs in the region, compared to 39% in France.

An even stronger reality in the Côte d’Azur area (which includes the Sainte-Maxime sector in this study). And that was confirmed in 2022. The number of paid hours – a good indicator of the volume of activity – increased by more than 6% compared to 2019 in the region after suffering an 80% collapse in 2020, with however, a later recovery in the Alpes-Maritimes, due to the large proportion of foreign customers.

30 hoteliers have adopted Gesture

Launched in 2021 under the impetus of the South Region to respond to the shortage of labour, Geste (Employers’ Group for the South of Committed Tourism) has already attracted around thirty hoteliers, for around forty jobs. concerned. The principle is to bring together companies that need to recruit, so that they together hire an employee, who divides his time between his employers. And can thus spread the activity all year round, rather than working only in summer or winter.

« The “We all need you” campaign also continues “, specified François de Canson, who points to “tourism bashing”, recalling that this sector of activity contributes to 13% of the regional GDP. “Last year at the same period 8,000 employees were missing, and this year “only” 5,000” also announced the president of the CRT.