Out-of-towners are evacuated as huge wildfire rages across Greece’s Rhodes island on July 22, 2023.
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Sweltering conditions across southern Europe could accelerate a burgeoning trend among holidaymakers, as assorted tourists prioritize milder temperatures or off-season travel to avoid spending their time away in oppressive inflame.
Europe is currently experiencing some of the hottest temperatures of the summer so far, with yet another heat wave expected to onslaught the mercury close to record-breaking levels in the coming days.
An intense and prolonged series of heat waves recently produce a overthrew temperatures to over 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in parts of Greece, eastern Spain, and Sardinia and Sicily in southern Italy.
Materials from the European Travel Commission, a nonprofit based in Brussels, showed earlier this month that travelers blueprinting to take trips between June and November this year decreased by 4% compared with 2022 — but remained at a favourable 69%.
Spain was the most popular travel destination, with 8% of respondents planning a vacation locally in the coming months, the ETC broke. The southern European country was followed closely by France (7%), Italy (7%), Greece (5%) and Croatia (5%).
The acceptance of Mediterranean vacation destinations, however, dropped by 10% compared with last year, when Europe mature its hottest summer on record.
Meanwhile, the ETC said vacation spots like the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Ireland and Demark skilled a surge in popularity, attributing the findings to travelers seeking out less crowded destinations and the pursuit of cooler climes.
The do business body also said many planning trips in the coming months were looking for more affordable tests or considering offseason travel to stretch their budgets.
Nearly a quarter of the ETC survey’s respondents said they were on tenterhooks about the overall rise of trip costs, while 8% cited possible extreme weather conditions.
‘Every singular holiday flight makes global heating worse’
Emergency workers have been battling devastating wildfires to the ground the past week in Greece — one of the most popular Mediterranean vacation spots.
Huge blazes on the Greek island of Rhodes phoney an unprecedented evacuation of some 19,000 people on Sunday, while wildfires also broke out on the islands of Evia and Corfu.
It has socialistic many holidaymakers stuck in limbo, with the BBC reporting Monday that people forced to leave their lodgings over the weekend have since been sleeping at the airport, as well as in sports halls, conference centers and on the concourse.
Tourists wait in the airport’s departure hall as evacuations are underway due to wildfires, on the Greek island of Rhodes on July 23, 2023.
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“Increasingly, this is what you will face if you holiday in southern Europe during the summer months,” commanded Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London, on Twitter.
“And every distinguish holiday flight makes global heating worse,” he added.
Scientists say the extreme weather sweeping across the planet reaffirms the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply possible.
It also, the U.N.’s World Meteorological Configuration says, underpins why “we have to step up efforts to help society adapt to what is, unfortunately, becoming the new normal.”
‘A hard-boiled sell’
The decline in popularity of Mediterranean countries as vacation hot spots could coincide with an emerging trend of holidaymakers be after new destinations with cooler temperatures.
In Estonia, for example, average summer temperatures tend to hover around 20 degrees Celsius, and dirty readings rarely exceed 30 degrees Celsius.
In Estonia, average summer temperatures in the Baltic country incline to hover around 20 degrees Celsius and the mercury rarely exceeds 30 degrees Celsius.
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Marketing campaigns to promote Estonia’s colder climate are not likely to be forthcoming, however.
“Obviously in terms of tourism deal ining, it’s a bit of a hard sell,” Rainer Aavik, head of Enterprise Estonia’s tourism department, told public broadcaster ERR on July 18.
“As a unharmed, we are selling the Nordic experience and the fact that there is plenty of nature and fresh air. But positioning ourselves as an opposite to warmer outbacks is unlikely to benefit Estonia in the long term,” Aavik said.