Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to as local weather change “a possibility to broaden our tourism season” after his nation suffered lethal wildfires and historic floods in current months.
Requested if the scorching temperatures recorded in Greece over the summer season may encourage vacationers to hunt locations in northern Europe, Mitsotakis advised Bloomberg TV “it’s nonetheless going to be a while earlier than the Scandinavian seashores … compete with the Greek seashores.”
“Individuals nonetheless benefit from the scorching Mediterranean and so they do wish to come to the Mediterranean and to Greece particularly throughout the summer season as a result of they wish to spend time on the seaside,” Mitsotakis mentioned. “If something, I’d argue that local weather change is a chance for us to broaden our tourism season.”
Mitsotakis argued that rising temperatures may assist make his nation a year-round vacation spot, increasing the favored July and August season.
On the identical time, Mitsotakis acknowledged the local weather disaster is right here to remain and mentioned he has been urging his colleagues in Europe to take measures associated to “short-term adaptation.”
“We spend trillions of euros on long-term mitigation and rightly so, as a result of we wish to be leaders within the local weather transition. However we additionally must assist individuals after they lose their livelihoods, their homes on account of local weather disasters as we speak,” Mitsotakis mentioned.
Earlier this month, floods in central Greece killed no less than 17 individuals on the heels of a serious wildfire that destroyed over 230,000 acres and killed greater than 20 individuals.
One other blaze in Rhodes in mid-July made headlines, with vacationers frantically searching for to flee the island.
Greece is way from the one European nation coping with excessive weather-related occasions.
Final yr, the continent registered 61,672 heat-related deaths throughout the summer season months, in line with a examine by the Nature Medication journal.
