With all that in mind, worrying about where you’ll be laying your beach towel in 2043 feels a bit trivial, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. These economies rely heavily on your towel – tourism accounts for 18 per cent of GDP in Greece, 12 per cent in Spain, 10.5 per cent in Italy – so these governments are already thinking seriously about what climate change will mean for their holiday economies this century.
Because if the Med is off-limits for summer, where will we go instead? One obvious solution is to look up. Resorts across the Alps have suffered from low snowfall in recent winters, and many are beginning to pivot towards a summer tourism model instead. What this means is more wellness options, more stargazing tourism, more cultural festivals and so on.
Mountain accommodation options will start to feel less après. The Brecon (thebrecon.com), new to 2024 in the Swiss village of Adelboden, calls itself a “high-altitude hideaway”. While the adults-only Odles Lodge (odleslodge.it), opened in 2023 in Italy’s South Tyrol, puts emphasis on style and privacy.
We can also expect to see a stretching of the season, with the Easter break and May and October half terms becoming more popular holiday periods. Some firms are already tweaking their calendars: “The soaring summer temperatures in Europe are certainly making it more challenging for people to do active holidays,” says Radek Nowak from Intrepid Travel.
“We don’t run hiking trips in Spain and Portugal during the hottest months of July and August any more, and we’ve added more shoulder-season trips in April and October to make it easier for people to avoid the extreme temperatures. We’ve also added winter trips to places like Greece and Croatia.”