THE Hotel Neptun on the Baltic coast has a luxury problem familiar to many German businesses: a lengthy help-wanted list it needs to fill to meet booming demand.

The five-star accommodation in a 1970s-era beachfront high rise at Warnemuende is looking for an electrician, chefs, a waiter, a maid, fitness instructors and a beautician to serve a growing number of German and international guests.

It’s an issue that threatens growth not only in the country’s tourism sector — on track for a 10th year of expansion — but across Europe’s biggest economy.

“Holidaying in Germany has never been more popular,” said Guido Zoellick, the hotel’s general manager who is also president of the German hotel and restaurant association DEHOGA.

“But continued success doesn’t just depend on demand, it’s also especially about having the right policies for the country,” he said by email. “One of the most important and most urgent tasks for the industry is meeting our need for qualified staff.”

The risk posed by a lack of qualified workers — Fachkraeftemangel in German — has reached the highest echelons of power. Chancellor Angela Merkel this month hosted a special meeting of political and business leaders to address the issue, which spans software engineers to nursing-home staff.

In an effort to ease recruitment, a law will take effect in March to smooth the process of hiring academically and professionally qualified workers from outside the European Union. The accompanying website, called “Make it in Germany,” offers information for employers and prospective workers.

The help couldn’t come fast enough for the tourism sector. More than two-thirds of hoteliers and restaurateurs identified the scarcity of skilled staff as their biggest problem in a DEHOGA survey published last month.

Tourism is a key motor of growth for Europe’s biggest economy, contributing about the same to gross value added as retail or manufacturing and employing more than 3 million people, according to government figures.

Germany’s pull as a tourist destination increased markedly after reunification in 1990.

(SD-Agencies)