“It was very hot,” said Jacobsmeyer, a New Yorker who visited northern Italy, southern France and Monaco for eight days in July. In Monaco, the mercury rose high enough for a fellow traveler in Jacobsmeyer’s tour group to reveal that she and her family would be skipping a week of their trip because of temperatures in excess of 30C. “I’m too cheap to cancel a vacation I’ve already paid for,” said Jacobsmeyer, who nevertheless sees logic in having a limit on heat. Europe has seen several heat waves this summer, breaking records in some cases. Parts of the continent have faced severe drought conditions – and wildfires have ripped through forests and forced people to flee homes, camps and resorts. Travel industry experts say the continent has faced periods of extreme weather in the past, but these challenges have the potential to change where and when people travel as they become more frequent amid a changing climate.
It has to be adjusted
In southwestern France this week, firefighters were trying to put out a large fire in the Gironde region – just like last month. The country is now also facing its worst drought and fourth heat wave this year. A red hue can be seen in the sky in this image taken in the early hours of August 11, 2022, as a wildfire burns near Belin-Béliet in southwestern France. (Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images) Frédéric Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Metropolitan University of Toronto, said the country has dealt with wildfires in the past — particularly in the more fire-prone south — though not with the combined scale and frequency of the problems. the year. “The consequences of these fires seem to be greater than ever before,” said Dimanche, who is from France and follows the news there. WATCHES | Demand for UK air conditioning rises amid summer heatwave:
Demand for air conditioning is rising in the UK amid summer heat
Unused to high temperatures, the UK is struggling to adapt to this summer’s extreme heat. As the temperature rises, so does the demand for air conditioning in UK homes. He said it was too early to tell how tourists would make their vacation plans in the future, but some tourism operators signaled they would make adjustments. Dimanche heard an interview with the owner of a campsite destroyed by a recent fire near Arcachon, France. The owner planned to rebuild his facilities, with an eye towards a more environmentally sustainable facility. But he was optimistic about the future. “Never in this interview was there talk of quitting,” Dimanche said. “He’s still counting on people coming back next year.”
Hot, yes. Too hot, no
Dimanche said this part of France and the wider Mediterranean basin area attracts sun-seekers from other parts of the continent for holidays, whether traveling by car, train or plane. And like their fellow tourists from abroad, these vacationers are there to enjoy the heat. “It’s pretty much sun – guaranteed all summer long,” he said. A passenger on a tourist boat is protected from the sun during a hot day in Berlin earlier this month. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Mary Chao can vouch for the power of the sun in the south of France long before summer officially begins, like when she and her husband went to the French Riviera in May. “By the afternoon, it was just scorching hot,” said Chao, a journalist who lives in New Jersey. Chao said dealing with the kind of extreme heat that followed later in the summer would make her “miserable.” Climate scientist Dominic Royé, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, said the wider Mediterranean region is warming 20 percent faster than the global average. “If you think about how weather-dependent tourism activities are, you can imagine the potential impacts [on tourism]Royé said in an email. Tourists cool off inside a historic building in the Plaza de Espana (Square of Spain) during the second heat wave of the year in Seville, Spain, on July 13, 2022 (Jon Nazca/Reuters) The European Travel Committee (ETC), which represents more than 30 national tourism organisations, says it has no data on how the extreme weather conditions plaguing the continent are affecting tourists’ decisions this year. “Sporadic adverse weather conditions are unlikely to affect the majority of tourists’ immediate travel behaviors,” ETC’s executive unit said via email. However, if such conditions “persist long-term”, the ETC believes, there could be changes on the horizon – possibly in the form of people choosing to travel elsewhere or go on holiday at times of the year when the heat is less intense. In Italy this summer, tourists visiting Lake Garda, where water levels have dropped dramatically, are seeing how extreme weather can affect their travel and leisure activities. Rocks that were previously underwater are now exposed and ring the Sirmione peninsula, well beyond the normal coastline. The water beyond is several degrees above its normal temperature — almost equal to the average of the Caribbean Sea. Garda Mayor Davide Bentinelli said the tourist season was going better than expected, despite cancellations by travelers during July’s heat wave. “Drought is a fact we have to deal with this year, but the tourist season is not in danger,” he wrote on Facebook last month.
More focus on risk
Dimanche points out that people traveling abroad this summer have had to make their plans amid an ongoing global pandemic. Frédéric Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Metropolitan University of Toronto, says people who traveled abroad this year had to factor in the COVID-19 risks that came with their plans. That same risk assessment could become a bigger part of how people plan future trips, he says. (Submitted by Frédéric Dimanche) He believes the same thought process could become a bigger part of how people plan their trips in the future. “I think that more and more, we should consider risk assessment for weather and climate change,” said Dimanche. This could be a factor for travel and tourism operators as well. Dimanche said they should consider the risks their customers could face. Victor Resco de Dios, professor of forestry at the University of Leida in Spain, sees wildfires as a specific area of risk that needs to be addressed. “The tourism sector needs to adapt quickly,” Resco de Dios, who sees growing threats to tourism as the fires worsen, said in an email. Resco de Dios said it’s a particular concern for tourist destinations bordering forests. Actions must be taken to mitigate fire risks, in part by reducing tree cover so that there is less fuel for future fires, he said. “I don’t think people know that their vacation spot can become a mousetrap under fire,” said Resco de Dios, who believes governments should publish maps showing whether a place is fire-safe. or not. “This way, tourists can make informed decisions about the risk they are taking with their vacation destination.” Smoke is seen filling the sky from a Greek coastal resort on the eastern island of Lesbos last month. (Manolis Lagoutaris/AFP/Getty Images)
