It promises to be a sunny Pentecost weekend and beach bar owners realize that. In Zeeland they expect a significant peak in the number of visitors. And to catch them, extra hands are needed.

“Normally there are four of us here, but this weekend there are eleven of us,” says Lars den Hollander of Zeecafe in Oostkapelle. He has rounded up some friends to join him for a weekend.

About 12 kilometers further, at Beach Pavilion Scheldezicht in Westkapelle, they also expect top crowds. To finalize the schedule, owner Bob van der Maas also looked abroad. “We have someone from Portugal in the ministry. We offered him shelter. You have to be creative.”

Hospitality entrepreneurs will have more difficulty finding young employees in the coming years, sees it UWV(opens in new window)simply because the number of young people in the Netherlands is decreasing.

Fewer young people are also opting for a catering education. This academic year, 22,000 young people will follow a catering course. Ten years ago there were about 6,000 more.

Furthermore, the number of international students at colleges and universities is declining, while according to the UWV, many catering establishments in student cities are dependent on international students with a part-time job in the catering industry.

Most people who work in the catering industry are younger than 25 years old. It is therefore important for entrepreneurs to be an attractive employer for this age group.

Entrepreneur Niels van Alphen has succeeded quite well in this, he thinks. He owns Bombaai Strandbar in Westkapelle. “We are a hip place. That has an attractive effect on young people.”

He says that young people often continue to work for a long time, but he also sees a new attitude. “Today’s youth have more demands, for example when they want to see friends or go to a festival. They are much more conscious about work and leisure.”

Entrepreneur Nasir Khalil is also succeeding in attracting young employees to his business, although it is becoming increasingly difficult. He is the owner of Strandpaviljoen de Zeebries near Vlissingen.

“We have quite a lot of young people under 25,” he says. “They are often students from Vlissingen or Middelburg. Everyone can be with us within half an hour.”

According to him, the trick is to ask young colleagues if they know any peers who are looking for a job. “If you already have a lot of young people working for you, it is easy to hire new young people through the grapevine,” says Khalil.

It is a lot more difficult to find young people for beach bars in Westkapelle and Oostkapelle, says Khalil. “The more you go there, the fewer young people there are. In that respect I really can’t complain.”