A top public health advisor has warned that the climate emergency poses a “real risk” to Spain’s traditional mass tourism model, as rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves hit the country’s most popular coastal areas.
Héctor Tejero, head of health and climate change at Spain’s Health Ministry, said the increasingly obvious physical impacts of the climate emergency had led the ministry to begin talks with the British embassy on how best to educate “vulnerable” tourists to cope with the heat.
Relating to: Europe’s heatwave expected to peak as health warnings issued
Asked whether the climate emergency could lead to the loss of tourism in some parts of Spain in the future, Tejero said: “It is a real risk because the big Spanish sun and beach “The tourist areas – the areas most dependent on tourism – are where climate change will have the greatest impact on Spain; places like the south and east of the peninsula – basically the Mediterranean coast. There is a definite risk that the areas with the most tourism will become less livable due to more heatwaves and much hotter nights.”
He added that such conditions could deter tourists or increase air conditioning costs in hotels as air conditioners would have to be on for longer periods of time.
“I would say that tourism is one of the many sectors at risk from climate change,” Tejero said. “In addition to causing tensions in certain regions, it also needs to adapt to the reality of the approaching climate. So we need to adapt the tourism sector, think about reducing it and try to mitigate the effects of climate change before they get worse. But Spain is the EU country most vulnerable to climate change and that will not change in the short term.”
Concerns about overtourism in Spain, which received a record 85.1 million international visitors last year, a 19% increase from 2022, have led to massive demonstrations across the country in recent months. Protesters in the Canary Islands complain that the presence of large numbers of tourists is exacerbating water shortages, while activists in the Balearic Islands are calling for limits on the number of vehicles ferrying to the islands.
A Spanish government report eight years ago predicted that the changing climate could dramatically alter Spain’s tourism industry, eroding beaches, flooding transport systems, causing peak-season water shortages and forcing ski resorts to close. The report predicted that tourism from northern Europe could fall 20% from 2004 levels by 2080 as rising temperatures prompt people to holiday at home.
But as Tejero points out, heat waves and high temperatures remain the most obvious and immediate symptoms of the emergency, and are particularly dangerous for tourists who are not accustomed to them.
“We are in discussions with the British Embassy, who we already collaborate with on different aspects of climate change and decarbonisation in particular, to start thinking about how we can make tourists more aware of the climate crisis and give them more advice so they can protect themselves,” he said.
“As a result, tourists are at greater risk in the heat because they are clearly not adapted to the local temperatures, which is a very important factor. We can see that they are not adapted; they are not used to protecting themselves from the heat – and everyone tends to take things less seriously when it comes to relaxing on holidays and staying out of the sun during the hottest hours of the day.”
Tejero said visitors should follow the government’s heat slogan – “protect yourself; drink water; refresh yourself” – and signs from locals who know the importance of staying out of the sun between noon and 4pm.
“The few fatal heatstroke cases we had last year were among tourists over the age of 50 or 60 who went hiking in the middle of summer and suffered heatstroke,” he said.
“I recently read about a case where a woman died because her husband didn’t speak enough Spanish to phone for help after he collapsed. I think tourists need to remember that they are a little more vulnerable than locals – and that means they need to follow the recommendations even more strictly when it comes to staying hydrated and staying out of the sun.”
The risks have been made clear elsewhere in southern Europe, where extreme temperatures have been stifling. In June, several foreign tourists, including British television presenter Michael Mosley, died in Greece during a period of unseasonably high temperatures.
Tejero noted that recent epidemiological studies showed that around 3,000 deaths in Spain each year were heat-related, and that heatwaves caused a 10% increase in emergency hospital admissions. He also said that higher temperatures would also lead to an increase in vector-borne diseases, noting that a man in Madrid was hospitalized this week with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a new disease spread by ticks.