An idyllic summer vacation turned into a nightmare after thousands of people were evacuated from Greek islands beset by wildfires — the latest reminder that Europe’s tourism industry needs to confront the realities of climate change and adapt fast.
Summers have been getting more intense in southern Europe, and the blazes in Greece are a grim repeat of deadly fires that devastated the country in 2021. Unbearable heat this year has forced authorities to shut the Acropolis and driven tourists on the Italian island of Sardinia indoors. And that’s with just 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming from preindustrial levels. Scientists say it’s going to get worse even if we contain the temperature rise to the Paris Agreement’s goal of 2 C.
Climate change is set to make the tourist-friendly weather in some places unrecognizable. A 2019 study predicted that Madrid’s climate in 2050 will resemble the north African city of Marrakesh; London will be more like Barcelona and Stockholm like Budapest. This would be a tectonic shift for Europe’s travel and tourism industry — which contributed €1.9 trillion (¥296.6 trillion) to the regional economy last year — and remap travel patterns in a way that will likely deal a blow to some countries in southern Europe.
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