Londoners are increasingly worried that their favourite holiday summer destinations will become too hot to visit, new research reveals today.
A survey found that 84% now fear one or more of the classic southern European hotspots will be unbearable within the next five years – an increase on 70% in 2022.
With London also experiencing longer and hotter heatwaves travellers are already changing their holiday plans – swapping the Mediterranean for the Channel, or shifting travel dates from high summer to spring.
Spain remains the country most commonly seen as becoming too hot for a summer break in the years ahead, named by 36% of respondents followed by Turkey (32%), Greece (31%), Cyprus (22%) and Italy (22%).
The research was published as a state of emergency was declared on on the Greek island of Chios after the third day of major wildfires.
But this is no longer just an overseas holiday worry after last week’s scorching temperatures, according to the research from travel insurers InsureandGo.
Londoners (21%) are almost twice as likely as anyone else in the UK (11%) to fear even the UK could be too hot to enjoy a staycation holiday within the next five years, suggesting extreme heat could even pose a threat to the domestic tourism industry.
Some people are also rethinking where they go on holiday altogether. Countries like Iceland (22%), Canada (21%) and Sweden (18%) are climbing the list of preferred destinations for cooler summer holidays, along with Ireland (17%) and Finland (16%).
Garry Nelson, Head of Corporate Affairs at InsureandGo said: “People aren’t just chasing the sun anymore – they’re thinking about how to cope with it. For some, that means skipping July and August altogether. For others, it means ditching southern Europe in favour of cooler destinations. Even the unthinkable is on the cards, as some staycationers become overseas holidaymakers to escape the summer heat in the UK – a country that is not really geared to cope comfortably with extreme heat.”
Summer heatwaves with temperatures above the 40C mark have become an increasingly frequent feature of southern European summers.
In all, there were more than 47,000 heat-related deaths throughout Europe in 2023, according to the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) – most were in southern areas.
The previous year had also seen multiple heatwaves across Europe, including the first recording of 40C in the UK.
