by Ferruccio Pinotti
The New York Times provocation: Experts advise avoiding Italy over scorching temperatures The Cambridge Studio: Northern Europe and Alaska in fashion. But the prolongation of warm seasons can benefit our South if used well.
Spend your vacation in Stockholm instead of Rome? Avoiding Tuscany’s record-breaking temperatures to visit less stuffy places like Amsterdam? The New York Times launches the provocation, which in a report on the impact of climate change on tourism in one of the countries most affected by heatwaves, our country, examines and highlights how climate change suggests a shift in holiday times when they take place and the destinations. Travelers in Europe – the New York daily suggests – are adapting their plans to the high temperatures, both by changing the destination but also revising the staggering of the holidays or postponing their trips by a month or two: depending on what they say the operators of the tourism industry.
Accelerated change and individual decisions
As climate change accelerates, experts at the NY Times say, such shifts in choices are likely to become more common — and necessary — in the coming years. This is especially true when traveling to Europe, a region that climate researchers have described as a hot spot, a searing place for extreme summer heat, and where future heat waves are expected to be longer, more frequent and more intense. . According to New York Times sources, Europe’s summer travel calendar has already lengthened during the quieter and cooler months of April, May, September and October as many travelers have started shifting their itineraries north and south. where at least the sea air movements make the heat less suffocating.
In Amsterdam to avoid heat shock
The New York Times cites the example of Dolev Azaria, founder of Azaria Travel, who helped a family spend the first five days of their vacation in Amsterdam instead of Rome at the last minute, just to avoid the heat. Other customers scrapped their plans for Tuscany and rebooked in favor of Sicily, where they would at least have a Mediterranean breeze. The goal is to bring a customer from a heat-locked city to an area that offers a seafront and waterfront, Azaria told the NY Times. This is how places like Copenhagen and Amsterdam came about, places that our customers might not have originally chosen.
The Cambridge Study
That the trend is undeniable. The report “Climate Change: Implications for Tourism”, published by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (Cisl), Cambridge Judge Business School (Cjbs) and the European Climate Foundation, analyzed the findings of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5 Ipcc ) to identify the impacts to understand what climate change could have on the tourism industry. The analysis of the two institutes of the University of Cambridge concludes that tourism is exposed to numerous direct and indirect impacts of climate change. Rising sea levels and more acidic oceans will threaten coastal tourism infrastructure and natural attractions. Rising temperatures will shorten the winter sports season and raise questions about the survival of some ski resorts. Climate change will ultimately lead to changes in biodiversity that will impact ecotourism. In addition, tourism’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is increasing and is projected to increase by 130% by 2035, reaching 10% of total global emissions by 2025, up from 3.9-6% today. Transport accounts for around 75% of tourism’s greenhouse gas emissions, and more efficient aircraft and vehicles and cleaner fuels could help reduce emissions. There is great uncertainty about how tourists will respond to the effects of climate change.
In Alaska and Northern Europe
Regions that could benefit from climate change include Alaska or northern Europe, which the Cambridge study says will attract more hikers with milder, longer springs and summers. The report predicts significant problems across the Mediterranean, citing the example of Spain’s Costa Brava trying to attract tourists outside of the summer months when water is scarce and temperatures are too high. Overall, the conclusion of researchers from Cambridge and the European Climate Foundation seems worrying: The tourism industry will be severely affected by climate change. The study confirms a growing tourism phenomenon: more and more people are choosing to vacation in places at risk of being wiped out or severely altered by global warming, such as glaciers, the Arctic, Antarctica or coral atolls, to take advantage of opportunities that such recent years offer. Incidental tourism will, by definition, be short-lived. Stephen Farrant, Director of the International Tourism Partnership concludes: All segments of the industry need to think about what can be done to adapt to climate change and continue the process of reducing the environmental impact of their activities.
The challenges of green tourism and the off-season
An opportunity for Italy is sustainable tourism, which, however, requires public investment in infrastructure, transport and services. In Italy around 20% of people declare that they practice sustainable and responsible tourism, then there are around 45% of eco-sustainable holidaymakers who declare that they are willing to pay supplements on the cost of their holiday in return for access for various sustainable services provided directly by travel agencies. Unfortunately, there are still too few people who inquire about the availability of truly sustainable structures, around 40%. Obviously, the idea of sustainable tourism envisages the unconditional renunciation of one’s own private transport in favor of using public transport (preferably ecological), bicycles or directly on foot (where possible). then it remains essential to help the Italian regions – especially in southern Italy – to postpone the tourist offer for longer periods. in a period from April to the end of October-November. Many operators in the sector, in the absence of marketing tools aimed at capturing foreign demand in the off-season and dead months, limit themselves to full houses in August, instead abandoning flows that can be captured in the presence of an effective advertising policy.
Aug 5, 2022 (Modified Aug 5, 2022 | 10:59 am)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED