Holiday Insurance Company Claims Wildfires Changing Travel Plans
Travel insurance company Insureandgo claimed on July 16th that increasing wildfires are making people change or cancel their travel plans
Anybody who actually believes this rubbish has clearly bee watching too much BBC!
The article states:
One minute you’re relaxing by the pool. The next, you’re checking your phone [Just as you do!!] to see whether smoke from nearby wildfires will affect your flight home. For many travellers, that’s becoming an increasingly familiar part of a summer holiday.
Over the past few years, Europe has experienced record-breaking temperatures, widespread wildfires and prolonged heatwaves. While these events aren’t stopping people from travelling abroad, they are changing how many of us think about our holidays.
Our latest research reveals that UK holidaymakers are adapting to a new reality. Rather than cancelling trips altogether, many are rethinking where they travel, when they go and how they prepare for hotter summers.
Wildfires are no longer isolated incidents. In recent years, destinations including Greece, Spain, Turkey, Portugal and France have all experienced significant wildfires during the peak holiday season.
Our research found that 22 percent of UK adults have experienced wildfires while on holiday in recent years, highlighting just how common these events are becoming.
Despite this, the appetite for travel remains strong. Three quarters (75 percent) of UK adults say they’re planning a holiday abroad this year, suggesting that while travellers are aware of the risks, most aren’t letting them stop them from getting away.
Instead, many are finding ways to adapt.
Are Europe’s hottest destinations becoming too hot?
Successive summers of extreme heat are making people think differently about future holidays.
More than half of UK adults (51 percent) say climate-related factors will influence their holiday plans over the next few years. For some, that means travelling during spring or early autumn instead of the height of summer. Others are considering destinations where temperatures are likely to be more comfortable.
Not everyone is ready to swap the Mediterranean, however. More than a third (38 percent) say they’ll continue visiting their favourite summer destinations, even if temperatures continue to rise.
It’s not just the heat people are thinking about
Climate change isn’t only associated with soaring temperatures.
Around 68 percent of UK adults believe some popular holiday destinations could be underwater by 2050 because of rising sea levels.
People can believe whatever they wish, but that does not make it true.
The full article can be seen here: insureandgo.com
Summer temperatures have changed little in countries like Spain – for instance Seville and Cadiz, both long running stations:
Source: climexp.knmi.nl
Moreover Mediterranean wildfires have not gotten worse since the 1980s:
While 2017 and 2025 were respectively in second & third places, the overall trend, shown by the red line, is flat.
It should also be noted that if 2017 and 2025 were lower, the trend line would be showing a reduction, not an increase.
The idea that “22 percent of UK adults have experienced wildfires while on holiday in recent years” is frankly absurd. The wildfire acreage is a tiny fraction of the landmass in countries like Spain and most fires that do occur are far inland in mountainous regions.
These people are probably reacting to media stories about a fire hundreds of miles away.
Tourists have always sought out the heat in the Med; holidaymakers with kids, of course, have no option but to fly in the peak of summer.
Older people tend to graduate to off peak periods not because it is too hot, but because the beaches are quieter.
In the same way, they go for alternative holidays, which would have bored their children stupid!
Letitia Smith, who wrote this assortment of drivel, is supposedly Head of Communications.
I suggest she finds a job more suited to her talents.
See more here notalotofpeopleknowthat
Bold emphasis added
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