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Tourism creates jobs, boosts export earnings

Tourism helped to create new jobs and higher export earnings in 2009, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) reported on Tuesday.

Tourism creates jobs, boosts export earnings

Total tourism revenue increased by over six percent to 251.7 billion kronor ($32.87 billion) last year and created nearly 12,000 new full-time jobs, while export value, as measured by foreign visitor consumption in Sweden, rose by nearly 13 percent to 93.6 billion kronor in 2009.

This result was higher than the exports of cars, iron and steel combined, added the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association (Sveriges Hotell & Restaurang företagare, SHR).

“In addition, the development of the hospitality industry is only just beginning,” said Eva Östling Ollén, presidnet of SHR. “On Wednesday, we will launch a national strategy for the Swedish hospitality industry, into which we have studied how it can best be developed by 2020.”

The strategy has been developed by Svensk Turism, SHR, VisitSweden, Tillväxtverket, Swedavia, Stockholm Visitors Board, the Western Swedish Tourist Board (Västsvenska Turistrådet)/Sweden’s regional tourism organisations and the Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket).

“In this way, it feels important that the industry take responsibility for future developments, as we do with national strategy,” added Östling Ollén.

“We have also set ambitious goals for the industry’s development until 2020, goals that, with the support of politicians and the hard efforts of entrepreneurs, may well be fulfilled,” she said.

The national strategy – “Sustainable growth for companies and destinations in the Swedish tourism industry” will be launched in connection with a seminar in Almedalen.

In addition, tourism is a staff-intensive industry, Tillväxtverket wrote. Since 2000, the sector has created nearly 36,000 new full-time jobs, an increase of almost 30 percent, while total employment in Sweden increased by 4 percent in the corresponding period.

In 2009, the number of full-time workers rose to 160,000, an increase of 8 percent from the previous year. For an export-dependent country like Sweden, tourism has never before been so important for the development of the Swedish economy.

From 2000 to 2009, the export value from tourism has more than doubled, while Sweden’s total exports of goods and services over the same period increased by about 43 percent in current prices.

“According to international estimates, global visitors will grow by around 4 percent per year until 2020. Sweden is well placed to take advantage of this growth,” said Christina Lugnet, Tillväxtverket’s director-general.

“We have attractive tourist destinations and facilities, as well as nature and culture, which, in their refined forms, are what both leisure and business travellers seek,” she added.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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