Press release 06/30/2006

ECONOMIC SURVEY ON THE HOTEL & CATERING SECTOR 2004

Over 47.000 persons worked in 2004 en el hotel and catering sector in the A.C. of the Basque Country

Of these 15,000 were self-employed and 32,500 salaried workers

The hotel and catering sector (Hotels, Restaurants, Bares and Cafeterias, etc.) created wealth to the sum of 1,810 million euros in 2004 and employment came to 47,656 jobs, according to Eustat data.

The value added per person was 38,000 euros, which is distributed between 21,900 euros in personnel costs and 16,100 euros in business surplus.

The contribution by the hotel and catering sector to the wealth generated by the whole of the economy was 3.8% and from the viewpoint of employment, its establishments employed 5.1% of employees in the A.C. of the Basque Country.

Of the three subsectors that mainly constitute the hotel and catering sector, the most outstanding in volume corresponded to beverage establishments (cafés, bares, etc.) with almost 11,000 establishments and employed almost 20,000 persons, the value added per person in this sector being 36,238 euros.

The second activity in importance is Catering which, with 3,908 establishments, employed 17,859 persons. This subsector generated similar value added per person to the former, i.e. 36,026 euros.

Hotel activity employed 4,416 personas, divided among 528 establishments. Here the value added per person came to 56,462 euros, this being the most intensive subsector in capital, with regard to the previous two and, as a result gave the highest value added per employee.

Net sales for Catering came to 4,228 million euros, intermediate consumption came to 2,448 million and personnel costs were 1,044 million in 2004.

Investment carried out by the whole of the sector came to 132 million (22 million for Hotels, 32 million for Restaurants, 68 million for beverage establishments and 10 million for the rest).

Pre-tax profits amounted to 610.5 million and cash flow (amortization plus profits) came to 736 million in 2004.

51% of personnel employed in the hotel and catering sector carried out their work in Bizkaia, 34.7% did so in Gipuzkoa and the remaining 14.3% worked in Álava. This provincial distribution changes for each of the subsectors. In Hotels, personnel employed in Gipuzkoa represented 41% of the total, 34% in Restaurants and 32% in beverage establishments. Bizkaia employed 53% of the personnel employed in beverage establishments, 51% of employees in Restaurants and 44% of employees in Hotels. In the case of Álava, practically in all three subsectors the weight was similar for the whole of personnel employed in the A.C. of the Basque Country, around 15%.

For further information:

Euskal Estatistika-Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística C/ Donostia-San Sebastian, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Tel:+34-945-01 75 00 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 E-mail: eustat@eustat.es Contact: Jose Mª Agirre Eskisabel Tel:+34-945-01 75 80 Fax:+34-945-01 75 01 Press releases on the Internet: www.eustat.es