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https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/27/extreme-heat-poses-real-risk-to-spains-mass-tourism-industry>
"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.”
Such conditions, he added, could discourage tourists, or push up
air-conditioning costs for hotels as the units would need to be on for longer
periods of time.
“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.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
