Extreme Heat Poses Threat to Spanish Beach Tourism – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

So go swimming a few weeks earlier in the season?

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 14.00 AEST

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.”

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“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.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/27/extreme-heat-poses-real-risk-to-spains-mass-tourism-industry

How could the “climate emergency” possibly get more absurd?

Spain has this thing called winter, which is cold. Spanish Summers are hot. Somewhere between the hot Spanish summer and the cold Spanish winter is a temperature which is right for everyone. If you don’t like blistering heat, visit a few weeks early. Or if the weather is too hot, pick a beach on the Spanish North coast where the weather is a little cooler.