Inferno in southern Europe
What happens to the summer vacation when there is only burning on the Mediterranean?
The heat in southern Europe was a vacation pleasure for decades. Today she gets a fiery nightmare. What does this mean for the tourist regions and travelers?
“Today in Bologna Italy arrived (…). The heat wave is spectacular here. If things go on, these holiday destinations will not have any future,” said the host country. It was two years ago, but the remark is more topical than ever.
The temperatures in Italy will again reach health -questioning heights this summer: a travel guide recently collapsed in the heat in the Colosseum and died in front of the eyes of her travel group. There are now more than 1500 heat note together in all southern European countries.
In addition, there are again the forest fires, which, fabricated by heat and drought, are once again putting landscapes in rubble and ash and threatening villages, cities and tourist hotspots. How could it get that far?
Anyone who has experienced temperatures above 40 degrees think about whether they want to spend their annual vacation in this way
For decades, the warmth in southern Europe was a summer pleasure and attracted hundreds of millions of tourists every year. But at the latest since the devastating fires in 2023, the summer season on the Mediterranean has become a nightmare. The European continent heats up like no other through climate change. In southern Europe, people lose their houses and apartments through the forest fires and also their income from the continuing tourists every year, because the forest fires devastate holiday paradise and the increasing heat even makes sunbathe life -threatening.
“Anyone who has experienced temperatures above 40 degrees think about whether they want to spend their annual vacation,” says Harald Zeiss star. He researches sustainable tourism at the Harz University of Applied Sciences. But also the question of how global global warming changes travel habits drives it. For several years now, he and other tourism researchers have observed that the desire to travel is decreasing in EuropeAnd not just because of corona, inflation and increasing energy prices.
Does climate change in southern Europe destroy, as ex-health minister Karl Lauterbach suspected two years ago?
Climate change shifts tourism to Northern Europe
From an economic point of view, the rising temperatures for southern Europe are a disaster. Summer tourism is one of the main sources of income there. In Spain, he accounts for a good twelve percent on the gross domestic product, in Greece 13 and in Portugal even 21 percent. But the stronger the countries are affected by climate change, the more their revenue drops. Depending on the estimate, these could break away completely for some countries in southern Europe in the future.
When can I cancel my journey in heat regions?
- Extreme heat is Only then a reason for a free cancellation if the temperatures on the travel destination increase unexpectedly life-threatening and issue the authorities or doctors, explains Reiserechtler Oliver Matzek-Wieben.
- It is different with Natural disasters like forest fires or floods. “It is important that either the approach or the holiday region are specifically affected” – that is, if hotel facilities are no longer accessible due to fires, avalanches, floods or rock falls. If forest fires rage several hundred kilometers away from the booked hotel complex, the trip can take place as planned.
- At privately organized trips Tourists must note that they may only get part of their costs back, depending on whether the journey or accommodation is affected by a natural disaster.
- In any case, the travel laws advise you to get in good time to inform at the Federal Foreign Office and the media about the current situation in the travel destination. You should cancel your trip as early as necessary and as late as possible. There are no concrete deadlines, Reiserechtler Matzek-Wieben considers a cancellation to be realistic from a week to a few days before the start of the trip. Depending on the extent, forest fires could be deleted again depending on the extent.
Something similar show forecasts. In it, a team of researchers calculated how strongly a temperature increase of 1.5 to four degrees would affect the tourist regions in Europe. Regardless of which scenario, the south, the result of the calculations will lose tourists in the long term. How high the extent will be depends on how much degree the earth is heating up in the coming years. But there are also winners: In Scandinavia, demand could increase by almost 16 percent compared to 2019. “Heat reduces comfort, forest fires scare through dramatic pictures, even if they often only affect small areas and often no vacationers,” says Zeiss, who was not involved in the study himself.
Some travelers are already exchanging their Mediterranean trip for a hiking holiday in Great Britain. “Coolcation” is the name of the trend that tourism researchers have been observing for a long time and with which Sweden, among other things, promotes visitors. Instead of a beach holiday in southern Europe, more and more people are moving to Central and Northern Europe in midsummer. This applies especially to older people, active vacationers or families with small children who cannot endure extreme temperatures so well.
“Climate change becomes one of the most important framework factors,” confirms Zeiss, but emphasizes that countries like Spain, Italy and Greece do not have to do without holiday guests: “Mediterranean holidays are still plentiful, only he often slips into spring or autumn.” This is also shown by the European study: According to this, the researchers expect the strongest travel decline in July, while April will in future develop with the highest tourism volume in the future.
Source: Stern
