Last January the Filomena storm blocked the Barajas airport for hours and caused delays and problems in air traffic during days. For restrictions derived from the pandemic, the volume of passengers in this aerodrome, one of the main ones in the world, was minimal and also tourism in the city. In a month of January of a normal year, the collapse would have been monumental.
This month of August, it was not the cold, but the heat, which caused Greece, another of the main sun and beach destinations, lived an unprecedented heat wave in half a century, with temperatures close to 50 degrees. This caused a wave of fires and one of the most striking scenes was that of thousands of tourists who were being evacuated at ferrys in the middle of the night, surrounded by flames.
These are just some examples that illustrate the impact that these climate, abnormal upgrades so far, are having in the nearest tourism. The forecast is that they will go to more from here to decades, changing tourism, vacation destinations, the activities we do in that period and even the time of tourism.
The Impacts and Risks report derived from climate change in Spain, published by the Ministry of Ecological Transition, lists risks on a horizon of 30 years and the impact that a rise in temperatures will have in sun and beach destinations, in those of Mountain and generally throughout the transport infrastructure. Also in our holiday habits.
According to this study, the beaches will change as we know them today. They will be cut out because it will increase the sea level and swell. Also the temperature of the same, with the "possible incidence in diving activities", as well as in the aquatic activities that are made in rivers, such as canoeing.
Winter tourism will also be affected. The Spanish seasons will have less snow and those below 2,000 meters could therefore disappear or reconvert towards other modalities, according to the report. Counting all the stations of the Pyrenees (Spain and France), a heating scenario of four degrees would leave as viable only 7% of the stations.
Warming will also change vacation periods. In summer it will make too much heat and time it can be better in autumn and spring, which will make the high season of Sun Destinations and Playa Españols move out of traditional months, July and August.
Tourists, both national and international, will choose to take refuge in the coastal areas of the North, to flee the heat, and also in the indoor areas. The flows will be altered, as tourists from northern Europe, who are now our main issuing markets, will stop coming because they will have better climatic conditions in their territory and we will be traveling to these countries in summer. We will change, in this futuristic scenario, Benidorm by Gijón, Cádiz by the Norwegian fjords.
According to the different studies used within the report, foreign visitors will be reduced by 20% by 2080 with respect to the 2004 values and at the end of the century more than 30% of the territory, it would have unfavorable conditions for the practice of tourism in summer in areas of Sun and beach, and more optimal in the north. Another studies contemplates that the cities of the Mediterranean will be the most damaged, since the predisposition of tourists to visit these destinations would decrease with an increase of one degree on the annual scale of temperatures.
The impact on infrastructure also has its consequences in tourism: the blockade of roads or problems at airports, as we saw in the case of Filomena, as airplanes can not take off or land. The report raises, for example, the possibility of damage and erosion in bridges and roads by increasing the intensity of the rains, short but extreme.
The same in the case of trains. Also the possibility of fires by heat waves and droughts and torrential rains that could affect rail traffic, producing delays and cancellations. The airports will also be able to find that the increase in wind and fog could affect track operations.
Date Of Update: 23 September 2021, 20:20
