Mediterranean beaches may get too hot for tourists
Mediterranean beaches may get too hot for tourists this century
because of global warming and northern Europeans will find the summer
balmy enough to stay at home.
"In the summers of the 2080s, potential tourists in the UK and
Germany will be able to find much better climatic conditions in their
own country than in the Mediterranean," according to a British and Dutch
study in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
About 100 million people, mostly from northern Europe and led by
Germans and Britons, visit the Mediterranean region every year where
they spend almost $100 billion.
Any shifts in their holiday habits could have a huge impact on
Mediterranean economies including those of Spain, France, Italy, Greece,
Turkey and Morocco.
"People don't want to go looking for sun, sea and sand and be forced
to sit in the shade because it's too hot," David Viner, said a senior
climate scientist at the University of East Anglia in England and
co-author.
Beaches in northern Europe, from Ireland and northern France to the
Baltics and southern Scandinavia, could become more attractive to
holidaymakers in summers in coming decades.
A heatwave in Europe this year means that some northern Europeans are
travelling to Mediterranean beaches and finding the weather no warmer
than at home.
"Those conditions will become more prevalent in future," Viner said.
Many scientists say that fossil fuels burnt in power plants, factories
and cars are releasing heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, raising
global temperatures.
Apart from baking temperatures, the attraction of the Mediterranean
might fade because the region could become drier, with more frequent
water shortages and forest fires. Viner's study with a researcher at
Maastricht University in the Netherlands said the Mediterranean climate
would become more suitable for tourism in spring, autumn and winter.
Overall, Mediterranean nations' revenues from tourism were likely to
decline even if they were more spread over the year.
Northern European resorts like Blackpool in England might stage a
revival.
The scientific panel that advises the United Nations says that
temperatures are likely to rise by 1.4-5.8 Celsius (2.5-10.4 Fahrenheit)
by 2100, bringing more frequent heatwaves, floods, mudslides and helping
spread disease. The report said Mediterranean countries could play to
other strengths away from the beach such as food, landscapes and
monuments left by the Greeks, Romans or Egyptians.
And in the long term, sunbathing might go out of fashion.
(Reuters)
|