Greek PM: Climate Change a Chance to Expand Tourism Season
Climate change is an opportunity for Greece to expand its tourism season, said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in an interview to Bloomberg Television over the weekend.
“People still enjoy the hot Mediterranean and they do want to come to the Mediterranean, and to Greece in particular, during the summer because they like to spend time at the beach. If anything, I would argue that climate change is an opportunity for us to expand our tourism season,” said Mitsotakis in response to whether the changing weather and higher risk of fire would keep travelers away from Greece in the future.
The Greek PM was quick to point out that Greece “will always have enough people interested to come” in July and August, and added that travelers are now visiting the country in March and April or October and November. “More people [are] interested in coming to visit our cities year round,” he said.
Referring to the criticism he received for the dozens of wildfires that broke out over the summer, Mitsotakis said the climate crisis was “here for good”.
“We’ve always had wildfires in the Mediterranean, but we had particularly intense wildfires this year and we also had unprecedented floods. It’s very clear that we need to focus more on short-term adaptation. This is, of course, a case I’m also making to my European colleagues,” he said.
Mitsotakis went on to add that expanding the tourism season has been a top priority. Referring to the changing travel trends, he said given the choice, people will prefer to take their holidays off season when there are fewer crowds and the weather is milder.
“For us, it’s a great opportunity to expand our tourism season and also to open new destinations on the mainland for people to explore,” he said, adding that it will be a while before “Scandinavian beaches or Danish or Swedish beaches compete with Greek beaches. I don’t see this happening anytime soon”, he said.
You need to get the flight companies onside too as there aren’t enough direct flights to UK and rest of Europe. One flight from North of England midweek and one at weekend with the same in the south of UK would help hospitality and tourist industry. Many expats have family who’d stay longer or visit UK out of season if direct flights didn’t end at end of October. Many want to be in UK at Christmas but many UK tourists want to be in a warmer climate over winter.
I’m in Crete and one Christmas a friend came for Christmas. It took him 19 hours to get here via Frankfurt and Athens. He definitely didn’t want to repeat it as he said it was like going long-haul and wasted 2 days of his holiday. A flight from Manchester and another from Stansted or any other London airport would be great. Just twice a week would be fabulous.
Would suggest forced labour for life to those who spark wild fire: arson is a crime.
If you want to encourage mitt tourists, why do you allow certain Museums on Kos to charge a higher entrance fee for people whose countries are not in the EU With no concessions for them.
Most unfair and not Tourist Friendly.
Wild fires are not caused by climate change Greece has been a hot country forever.
Climate change is the weather we can’t control it.