Campsites in Girona will hire workers from their countries of origin to reduce the seasonality of the sector.

GironaThe Girona Campsite Association is working to bring around 200 people from Latin America to work the season. The association’s president, Miquel Gotanegra, says that the shortage of professionals has led business owners to explore this option, and they plan to conduct a trial run this summer. Initially, the workers will be selected, trained, and then return to their home countries after the season. “The sector needs to build stable and qualified teams. That’s why we’re exploring new avenues, including recruitment from abroad, to ensure we can continue offering a high-level service and retain talent,” Gotanegra stated. The association president guaranteed that they will maintain recruitment campaigns in Catalonia but will combine them with this first experience of recruiting from abroad.

Increasing deseasonalization

The camping sector will close out 2025 as a “success,” according to the association’s president. Gotanegra explained that for the first time, they have surpassed one million overnight stays in a single September, representing an 18.8% increase compared to last year and almost 70% more than the number of overnight stays recorded ten years ago in Girona’s campsites. This has led to a growing number of establishments opting to open for more months of the year, instead of strictly limiting themselves to the three peak season months. However, Gotanegra contrasts this situation with the sector’s labor shortage. This shortage stems, in part, from the extended season. “The vast majority of workers are students, and you can only count on staff from July to the beginning of September,” the president of the camping association explained.

Therefore, campsites need a more stable workforce, and for this reason, they have decided to take a leap of faith and focus on recruitment from their countries of origin. This means that the association will be responsible for recruiting workers in Latin American countries, bringing them to Girona, training them, and integrating them into the staff. Once the season ends, they will return them to their countries of origin.

The president of the organization has assured that “nothing is different from what other economic sectors already do,” such as fruit harvesting. However, in this case, he specifies that the training is “much more technical” because, in the case of cleaning staff, there is a series of training courses on chemical products and digitalization that they will have to master before starting work. Gotanegra has guaranteed that this recruitment campaign will run parallel to the campaigns that were carried out locally. For now, this season they plan to bring between 200 and 250 people from countries that are not yet fully defined, but which could be Chile, Honduras, and Peru. “We can’t bring two planes full of people because we’re not prepared,” the spokesperson for the Girona campsites pointed out. In fact, the business owners in the sector say that this will be an initial trial and that, depending on its success, they will finalize the campaign the following year. “It will be a phased hiring process,” Gotanegra added.

The role of administrations

Gotanegra has asked that the authorities “believe in” the deseasonalization that businesses are implementing. For this reason, he believes it’s necessary to “continue cleaning the beaches” and also advocates for extending lifeguard services. “Seeing the beach as only a summer space is a stigma,” he adds. In fact, he asserts that many tourists take advantage of the winter to “stretch out on the sand and read” and enjoy the scenery or walk along the coastal paths. In this regard, Gotanegra sees an opportunity to expand all these services with the reformulation of the tourist tax, which they are working on with the government. The president of the association explained that they are negotiating how to modify the tourist tax jointly to achieve a mutually beneficial solution. In parallel, the Girona campsite association is also working with the authorities to secure public funding to expand the SmartCamp project. This summer, the pilot test of the digitalization and sustainability project, led by the association, was completed. They are now working on a “co-financing” agreement with government agencies because they believe that technological solutions allow them to meet some of the agencies’ objectives while simultaneously adding value to campsite businesses. The association is currently working to inform customers about approaching storms, real-time pool capacity, and water temperature, among other things.