Greece and Turkey Will Become Unfit for Holidays

In the coming decades the Mediterranean, as well as Turkey and Egypt, will become unfit for tourism because of global warming.

Summer heat waves will become regular in European countries, tsunamis will scare holidaymakers away from popular beaches, and the snow at ski resorts will melt. These and many other consequences of global warming will radically change the world's tourist map, or at least that is what Deutsche Bank analysts claim in their report "Climate Change and Tourism: Where Will the Journey Lead?"

Australia will be hit hardest. Because of rising oil prices, flights there will become more expensive, and because of warming, floods in the coastal zone and forest fires will become more frequent. The corals of the Great Barrier Reef will also begin to die, but, paradoxically, this is the only thing that will increase the flow of divers to the country. So the slogan "See the Great Barrier Reef before it disappears!" is quite relevant. The reefs near the Maldives will also die off, but that is no great loss, because by then the Maldives themselves will be flooded.

The nightmares do not end there. In Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Spain and Portugal, the summer heat that killed 35 thousand people in 2003 will become regular. Southern Europe has cultural monuments that tourists will keep travelling there for. But, first, there are not as many sights as in competing countries, and second, monuments can be visited at cooler times of year. The most lucrative summer season will pass the Mediterranean by. In addition, holidaymakers will fall out of love with Hungary, since Lake Balaton will become shallower.

Beachgoers will move to the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas – above all to Germany, Denmark and the Baltic states. France and Italy will also not suffer from the European heat and will even gain a little, since people go to these countries not for a "chocolate" tan but for museums and old palaces. Ski resorts located high in the French Alps will not suffer. But those located lower down will melt considerably. This applies to Italy, Austria and the FRG. The climate in England and Scandinavia will become milder and more pleasant.

According to estimates by Professor Richard Tol of the University of Hamburg, thanks to global warming, by the end of the 21st century the flow of tourists will increase most noticeably to Canada (by 220%), Russia (174%) and Mongolia (174%). The losers will be hot Muslim countries – Mauritania (a drop of 60%), Mali (59%), as well as Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (a drop of 55–58%).

1news.az