Statistics shows hospitality and tourism hammered by Covid
Ljubljana - The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on business in Slovenia, but while the impact has not been adverse on all industries, the hospitality and tourism sectors have been hit hard. Fresh statistics show turnover falling by a third in hospitality last year as travel agencies and tour operators saw their revenue slashed by 77%.
Data released by the Statistic Office show a total of 150,324 predominately market-oriented enterprises were active in Slovenia in 2020. They generated a combined EUR 98.3 billion in turnover, down 6.3% compared with the year before.
Sales revenue decreased the most in the hospitality sector where 12,588 active businesses generated EUR 1.5 billion in turnover, 34.4% less than the year before, as the number of employees shrunk by 6.1%.
The bulk of sales revenue was generated by companies in manufacturing and trading, which also have the highest share of employees.
Last year, there were 0.9% more active enterprises in manufacturing, which posted 4.7% less in turnover, but generated 1.9% more in value added.
The number of active businesses involved in trade dropped by 1.5% last year and their sales dropped by 8.2% to EUR 34.1 billion as the value added declined by 3.5% to EUR 4.6 billion.
Meanwhile, sales grew last year in construction, real-estate and professional, scientific and technical activities.
There there were 664 new active companies in construction last year. Just over 20,000 companies generated 0.6% more in revenue and 7% more in value added than the year before.
Sales in the real estate business were up by 3.6% and the value added rose by 4%. A total of 6,285 people worked in the 4,118 companies in the sector, 2.3% more than the year before.
In the sector termed by the statisticians as professional, scientific and technical activities, 36,749 companies were active last year, which accounts for a quarter of all active companies. Turnover of those companies increased by 0.6% and they generated 2% more value added. Employees in those companies represented 9.7% of all employees as their number increased by almost 2%.
Enterprises supplying electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning, and those supplying water, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities saw their turnover drop but they generated by 12.7% and 10.7% more in value added, respectively.
The pandemic affected the business of travel agencies and tour operators, where 1,004 companies were active last year. Their turnover decreased by 76.9% compared with 2019, and the value added was down by 75.2%.