2023-11-05 08:17:38
THE Spainthe “Queen of Iberia” with the huge contrasts between North and to Southredesigns his map European tourism, showing the way to other European countries as well. After years of warnings that hot places are becoming unbearable for tourists and colder places increasingly attractive, the world’s second most visited country after France is showing a new trend in tourism of the Old Continent. Regions such as Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria – considered too rainy for summer holidays – recorded a 47% increase in the number of international tourists compared to a year ago, reaching 435,500.
The “outburst” in the North coincided with a series of warnings of extreme temperatures in the South from Andalusia to Valencia. “The north of Spain is on the rise,” says Alberto Terol, hotelier and board member of real estate firm GMP. 20 years ago the area was inhospitable and rainy with bays, estuaries and winding coastal roads. Rainfall remains high, Terrol adds, but today the weather “is milder, warmer and the ocean water is warmer than before,” he adds, while prices remain relatively affordable — both for the real estate and the award-winning cuisine. of the area. The trend includes locals too. The student Carmen Medibourou, as a child spent her summer holidays in Almeria in the South, but this year she voted for the North. “Living in Madrid where there are few trees and the thermometer reaches 40 degrees, I didn’t want to go to the South to die even more from the heat,” he emphasizes. The largest group of foreign tourists in Spain are the British, followed by the French and then the Germans.
The change in the Spanish tourism model shows the way to other European countries as well.
The vacation plan seems insignificant compared to the threats climate change poses to agriculture, water supplies and public health. But if rising temperatures force southern Spain to rethink its tourism model, the consequences for the country will be cataclysmic, given its economic dependence on the industry. Spain is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, recording 72 million international tourist arrivals in 2022, with tourism accounting for 12%-13% of its gross domestic product.
Galicia’s regional government said it was seeing “significant growth” in the number of international visitors, who account for 30% of all tourism, as the southern coast was hit by killer heat. In the coastal provinces of Andalusia, with its famous Costa del Sol, Spain’s meteorological service issued dozens of extreme heat warnings in August. Investors and real estate executives, however, are not predicting disaster for the South’s tourism industry.
In the long run, the area may have to adjust to fewer visitors in the summer, promising “winter sun” to attract people the rest of the year. “What can happen is a change in seasonality,” underlines Inigo Molina, director of real estate company Colliers in Andalucia. Two years ago, the government said in a landmark long-term strategy report that the travel industry would need to be “reshaped” to adapt to climate changes in tourism “in time and territory”.
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