Extreme
heat poses ‘real risk’ to Spain’s mass tourism industry
Public
health adviser says higher temperatures caused by climate crisis pose danger
for visitors not used to them
Sam Jones in
Madrid
Sat 27 Jul
2024 05.00 BST
The climate
emergency poses a “real risk” to Spain’s traditional mass tourist model as
rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves hit the country’s most popular
coastal destinations, a senior public health adviser has warned.
Héctor
Tejero, the head of health and climate change at Spain’s health ministry, said
the increasingly apparent physical impacts of the climate emergency had already
led the ministry to begin talks with the British embassy on how best to educate
“vulnerable” tourists about coping with the heat.
Asked
whether the climate emergency could lead to tourism disappearing from parts of
Spain in the future, Tejero said: “It’s a real risk because the big Spanish sol
y playa tourist areas – the areas that are most dependent on tourism – are
places where the impact of climate change is going to be greatest in Spain;
places such as the south and the east of the peninsula – basically the
Mediterranean coast. There’s a definite risk that the zones where there’s most
tourism will become less habitable because of more heatwaves and much hotter
nights.”
Such
conditions, he added, could discourage tourists, or push up air-conditioning
costs for hotels as the units would need to be on for longer periods of time.
“I’d say
tourism is one of many sectors that’s at risk from climate change,” Tejero
said. “Apart from the fact that it’s causing tensions in certain areas, it
needs to adapt itself to the climatic reality that’s on the way. That’s why we
need to adapt the tourist sector, consider reducing it, and try to mitigate the
effects of climate change before they get worse. But Spain is the EU country
that’s most vulnerable to climate change and that’s not going to change in the
short term.”
Concerns
about over-tourism in Spain – which received a record 85.1 million
international visitors last year, a 19% increase on 2022 – have led to large
demonstrations across the country in recent months. Protesters in the Canary
islands have complained that the presence of so many tourists is exacerbating
water shortages, while activists in the Balearic islands are seeking a limit on
the number of cars coming on to the island by ferry.
A Spanish
government report published eight years ago predicted that a changing climate
could dramatically alter Spain’s tourist industry, eroding beaches, flooding
transport systems, causing water shortages at the height of the season and
forcing ski resorts to close down. The report forecast that, by 2080, tourism
from northern Europe could fall by 20% from its 2004 level as rising
temperatures induced people to holiday at home.
But, as
Tejero pointed out, heatwaves and higher temperatures remain the most obvious
and immediate symptoms of the emergency – and are especially hazardous for
tourists who are unused to them.
“We’re in
discussions, with the British embassy in particular – with whom we already
collaborate on different aspects of climate change and decarbonisation – to
start to think about how we can make the tourists who come a lot more aware of
the climate crisis and to give them more advice so they can protect
themselves,” he said.
“At the end
of the day, tourists have a greater risk in the heat because they’re obviously
not adapted to local temperatures, which is a very important factor. We can see
that they’re not adapted; they don’t have a habit of protecting themselves from
the heat – and everyone tends to relax on holidays and take things less
seriously when it comes to staying out of the sun at the hottest times of the
day.”
Tejero said
visitors would do well to follow the government’s heat slogan – “protect
yourself; hydrate yourself; refresh yourself” – and the cues of local people
who know the importance of staying out of the sun between midday and 4pm.
“The few
fatal cases of heatstroke we had last year were among tourists, aged over 50 or
60, who set out on hikes in high summer and got heatstroke,” he said.
“I was
reading about a case the other day where a woman died because her husband
didn’t speak enough Spanish to get help by phone after she collapsed. I think
tourists need to remember that they’re a little more vulnerable than the local
population – and that means they need to stick even more closely to the
recommendations when it comes to staying hydrated and keeping out of the sun.”
The risks
have been made clear in other parts of southern Europe grappling with extreme
heat. In June, several foreign tourists, including the British television
presenter Michael Mosley, died during a period of unseasonably high
temperatures in Greece.
Tejero noted
that recent epidemiological studies had shown that approximately 3,000 deaths
are attributable to the heat each year in Spain, and that hot spells cause a
10% rise in urgent hospital admissions. He also said higher temperatures would
also lead to an increase in vector-borne diseases, pointing out that a man was
admitted to hospital in Madrid this week with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever,
an emerging disease spread by ticks.
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