Ascension weekend: tourism professionals face the challenge of a lack of staff

Clément Bargain, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:11, May 26, 2022

Pitches are reserved, mobile homes are rented.

This campsite in Deauville in Calvados is full for the Ascension weekend, but the problem is that it lacks staff.

In reality, there is a deficit of 20 to 30% according to the Union of trades and hotel industries (Umih) in the catering, hotel and campsite sectors.

The managers will have to manage the influx of tourists as well as possible, like Patsy, in Deauville, who is desperately looking for a receptionist.

Europe 1 went to Calvados.

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"It's been two weeks," said the manager first.

"I put an ad for the whole season. We don't have a CV in our mailbox. It's going to be a little hard to manage," says Patsy at the microphone of Europe 1.

Closed at noon, overtime…

These professionals are therefore obliged to organize themselves.

In a charming hotel in Villerville, four employees are missing.

The director, Olivier, took the radical decision to close the restaurant for two lunches a week.

“If you close, you save time and that time is postponed when customers are present,” he explains.

"We question ourselves every day, to know maybe that the customer will have to go get his plate himself in the kitchen. We come to this," he says, somewhat desperate.

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In another restaurant by the sea, there is no choice, you have to provide the service.

All employees are required to work overtime.

It's a difficult pace to keep up for Manon, the manager.

"We don't have our lunchtimes, we don't have evenings either. The problem is that the fewer people we find, the more schedules we make. There is a point in time, that's for sure it's going to crack," breathes Manon, who hopes to receive CVs by the summer.

On the Normandy coast, thousands of seasonal jobs are still available.