IMAGES BY OVOODOCORVO
Forget the climate emergency and enjoy your
holiday, say Europe’s tourism chiefs
Italy may be frying, but the country’s tourism board
says visitors ‘will find a climate suitable for the summer season.’
BY MARI
ECCLES AND GIOVANNA COI
JULY 26,
2023 6:00 AM CET
Politicians
have a message for tourists who might be freaked out over roasting temperatures
and hellish landscapes of roaring forest fires: Swallow your fears and keep
enjoying your holiday.
In Greece,
20,000 people were evacuated from Rhodes over the weekend as fires engulfed
parts of the island, and British Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell said
he “wouldn’t” travel there at the moment. But Greece's Tourism Minister Olga
Kefalogianni talked down the threat, stressing that only a “small part” of the
island had been affected.
“There has
been no disruption in the airport, and … [only] 10 to 20 percent of the total
area of the island [was affected by fire],” she told the BBC’s Today program.
“When it comes to hotel accommodation, it’s 15 percent of the total capacity of
the island [that was affected].”
Her
soothing takeaway? "Everybody is safe.”
In Italy,
where Rome hit a record 46 degrees Celsius in recent days while the north of
the country saw floods of ice and water from hailstorms and Sicily's Palermo
airport was shut for several hours on Tuesday due to approaching wildfires, the
message is the same.
"The
high temperatures are physiological in this season and do not compromise in any
way our tourist offer that remains solid, quality, varied and
sustainable," Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè said late last week,
adding: "We are waiting for you in Italy."
She was
backed up by the chief of the country's tourism authority.
"I
would like to reassure visitors who come to Italy from all over the world that
here they will find a climate suitable for the summer season without particular
criticalities and without any risk," said Ivana Jelinic.
So far that
message of carrying on regardless is still working.
Only 7
percent of European travelers surveyed in March said that extreme weather was
their biggest vacation-related concern, according to a study carried out by the
European Travel Commission.
And while
82 percent of those questioned in a 2021 Eurobarometer survey said they’d be
prepared to change their travel and tourism habits to be more sustainable,
environmental factors were among the least important metrics by which
holidaymakers chose their destination.
There is an
uptick in travel to countries like the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Ireland,
said David García León, a climate change analyst at the European Commission.
“It can
also be argued that rising costs rather than the more benign weather are the
main reason for this choice," he said. "Still, the concern between EU
citizens about the consequences of possible extreme weather conditions is
growing."
That adds
to government worries. Tourism makes up nearly 10 percent of the EU's GDP and
employs around 23 million people. For traditional holiday destinations like
Greece, the impact is even higher, with tourism accounting for a quarter of the
economy.
The travel
industry, just starting to emerge from the COVID catastrophe, hopes that
dramatic footage of vacationers dragging their suitcases miles along Greek
roads as they flee burning hotels, skies lit up by smoking plumes and people
sleeping in makeshift shelters in hotel conference rooms doesn't put off the
punters.
The
wildfires in Greece are a “clear signal that tour operators will have to adjust
their strategy,” said Eric Drésin, secretary-general of European Travel Agents
and Tour Operators.
“There’s
definitely nothing we can do today or in the next week but there’s already a
lot of concern. We’re going to work on that," he said, adding: “It’s a
very specific situation. There’s not heat waves everywhere. It’s July and I’m
in France and it’s raining."
There is a
growing recognition that some aspects of tourism will have to change.
Greece’s
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was relatively clear-eyed about the problem,
telling lawmakers on Monday: “The climate crisis is already here … we are at
war.”
But the
industry says there’s no immediate urgency. In the works is a conference in
September to discuss next steps and Drésin said that some tourist-heavy
countries may change their marketing.
“Greece is
pushing a lot on being a year-round destination. You’re not obliged to enjoy it
in [just] July and August but in September, October, December,” he said.
Although
many recent summers have been marked by roasting temperatures, increased deaths
and wildfires, policymakers are only just starting to wake up to the problem.
The
European Parliament’s Tourism Task Force, which was created to tackle issues
within the sector, has focused its work on short-term rentals, digitalization
and package travel regulations, but has done little to analyze the impact of
extreme weather.
At an EU
level, the Commission’s tourism strategy says that climate mitigation and
adaptation measures “should always be included in the smart and sustainable
tourism strategies on national, regional and local levels,” and it encourages
tourist destinations to access research and funding opportunities through
Horizon Europe's Adaptation to Climate Change Mission.
A lot of
the Commission's policy is aimed at making tourism, and specifically transport,
greener, rather than adapting the tourism sector to climate change.
But more
summers like this one could end up having an impact on travel patterns, said
Lucas Berard-Chenu, a lecturer at the University of Grenoble.
“Fire risk
is likely to increase, potentially affecting tourist regions, particularly in
the Mediterranean,” he said. More people may head to the mountains in the
summer, thanks to “warmer and more stable weather conditions,” and “increasing
heat stress in urban areas.”
.jpeg)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário