Cafés, bars, restaurants, festive events (weddings, baptisms, communions), dining rooms, fast food… The whole hive of hospitality has become in the province of Córdoba one of the segments of the general basket that has the most downloaded … its price over the last two years (or even a third).
The feelings that one can sometimes experience when examining the bill of one of these establishments seem to be based on cold data. All you have to do is dive into the “kitchen” of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to which the INE serves to verify that since the end of 2023 and until last November (latest official data available), restaurant prices in general and in all its variants have increased almost 12 percent in the province of Córdoba: the highest percentage in all of Spain, whose general average rises to 8.3% in this section.
What is most important in this matter is that if we compare this figure with the increase in living throughout the province of Córdoba – and with all the products and services studied – it differs almost three times more. This is to be compared to the 11.8% which marks the restoration The general level in Córdoba has been 4.8% over the last two years. Seven points difference. Only the province of Zamora comes close to the hotel sector data with an increase of 11.7%. Even the most populous provinces of the country, such as Madrid (8), Barcelona (7.6%), Malaga (8.6%) or Seville (8.1%), do not come close to the figures of Córdoba.
Looking at another year, that is, from the end of the pandemic at the end of 2022 until the end of 2023 when the restrictions disappeared and the recovery began to be felt, the rise in prices in this very important sector in Cordoba (especially now in the capital) added another increase of 6.5%, which would total 18.3% inflation over the last three years compared to the average of 13.9% in Spain or to the 8.7% which would mark the general CPI. in the province.
Rising costs
Here are the numbers. The explanations coming from the hotel industry are almost a coincidence. The owners of several establishments in the capital consulted by ABC, and who preferred to omit their names, point the finger at “disproportionate increase” of chapters such as raw materials, fixed operating services or labor costs that occurred alongside this increase that the INE marks on its counter.
Raise the level
“The pandemic was a hard blow from which we needed God and help to recover, and when we managed to get through it, in complicated circumstances, came the energy and war crises which caused the cost of many raw materials to skyrocket, not only in the hotel industry, but in almost the entire global economy,” one of these renowned figures explains to this newspaper. Fixed costs such as electricity, water, garbage or even rental of properties When it exists, “they follow a very regular increase”, affirms another owner consulted, “and labor costs continue to grow like wildfire, as long as we opt for a regulated and precisely controlled hotel industry”, he adds. “We are coming out of a degraded situation compared to other places in Spain.”
The truth is that this increase in prices throughout the province is accompanied by the boom that Córdoba gastronomy considers as a promotional brand and a driver to attract tourism or new customers to the province itself. “A level that is rising and which must be accompanied by better products which, obviously, cost more,” specifies another of the restaurateurs consulted. According to the INE, from January to November, prices increased by 5.7%, seven tenths more than what occurred during the same period of 2024. Once again, Córdoba tops the ranking, about to close the year with the Christmasa big turning point.
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