Summers are getting hotter in southern Europe, experts say, and the fires in Greece are a grim repeat of the deadly fires that ravaged the country in 2021. Unbearable heat this year forced authorities to close the Acropolis and locked tourists on the Italian island of Sardinia. And this is with global warming of just 1.2 degrees compared to pre-industrial levels.
Climate change is expected to make tourist-friendly weather unrecognizable in some places. A 2019 study predicted that Madrid’s climate in 2050 would resemble that of the North African city of Marrakech. London will be more like Barcelona and Stockholm more like Budapest. This would be a tectonic shift for the European tourism industry (thanks to tourists, the regional economy grew by €1.9 trillion – $2.1 trillion) and would change the structure of travel. This would probably deal a heavy blow to some southern European countries.
