Summer heatwaves are changing travel—here's what you need to know

For seasoned travellers Heike and Robert Taylor, Umbria in the summer of 2022 was a turning point. The couple’s memories of a stress-inducing trip to the Loire Valley in July 2019 — when the region sweltered in 40C heat — were still raw, but they’d persevered with booking an Italian villa for a big family reunion. By nature, the Taylor clan on holiday are explorers. Yet such was the ferocity of the heatwave afflicting the central Italian region that summer, they ended up rarely leaving their rental property. “What was really eerie was lying by the pool and seeing the smoke in the distance from the wildfires, and helicopters flying in to douse the flames. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that,” says Heike.

Returning home, the couple vowed never again. Now, peak summer is spent in and around their Surrey home — and the European shoulder-season months of May and September are given over to active breaks in the likes of Sicily and Corsica.

It’s an all-too-common pattern among travellers, as heatwaves have shifted from uncomfortable anomalies to highly disruptive, near-annual events. The summer of 2022 was particularly extreme, with an estimated 60,000 heat-related deaths in Europe, China wilting in the face of an unprecedented 70-day heatwave and, in July, parts of the UK topping 40C for the first time. The same month the following year, nearly 20,000 people — many of them travellers — had to be evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes due to heatwave-exacerbated wildfires.

Heatwaves are spreading across the calendar, too. In May 2022, Spain’s state meteorological agency Aemet reported a heatwave of ‘extraordinary intensity’, with temperatures up to 15C above the seasonal average. In 2023, severe heat in France extended into September, affecting the operation of the Rugby World Cup. Earlier this year, much of the southwestern US was hit by a March heatwave, with temperatures touching 43C in parts of Arizona. As António Guterres, the UN secretary general, put it: “Extreme heat is no longer a rare event — it has become the new normal.”

In statistical terms, there’s no universal definition of a heatwave; there’s simply too much variance in global temperatures. But in all cases it refers to a period of abnormally high temperatures lasting for consecutive days. The UK’s Met Office defines it as at least three days where daily maximum temperatures exceed a regional threshold. In London that’s 28C. In Scotland, 25C. Both would be considered mild for somewhere like Athens.

With human activity ‘unequivocally’ driving global warming and the increase in such extreme weather events, according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the situation will only worsen. “We are pretty certain that for the next decades, at least, if not centuries, it’s going to be hotter and hotter,” says Alejandro Saez Reale, a specialist in heatwaves and their impact at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva. “The impact on tourism-reliant countries could be huge.”

Europe finds itself at the epicentre of heatwave-related tourism challenges. It’s the fastest-warming continent on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and also the most visited, with France, Spain, Italy and Greece consistently in the world’s top 10 destinations. The increasingly popular term ‘coolcation’ neatly summarises the emerging trend for travellers across the continent seeking out more temperate spots.

Northern and eastern European destinations are among the fastest growing in tourism terms, according to a report by the European Travel Commission (ETC), with Finland, Norway, Poland and Iceland all recording double-digit growth in inbound visitors. Research by the ETC in 2025 found 81% of Europeans were adjusting their travel habits due to the changing climate, with 15% actively seeking out cooler climates and 14% avoiding destinations prone to extreme heat. Travel operators such as TUI and Thomas Cook also report rising demand for Nordic countries.

Yet in 2025, France (102 million) and Spain (96.8 million) were still the most visited countries in the world, according to UN Tourism; Italy was fifth (64.5 million). The growth rate may have slowed, but the number of visitors to these countries is not dropping.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is sceptical heatwaves have the capacity to redraw the tourism map, at least in the short-term. “Feedback from our members suggests that, on the whole, people are continuing to travel much as they always have, enjoying Mediterranean destinations during the summer months,” said a spokesman. “Increased interest in slightly cooler destinations remains the exception rather than the norm.”

There are big incentives for tourism-dependent destinations to ensure heatwaves don’t result in a travel exodus. This is driving innovations that, in time, could become widespread. Seville, in a part of Spain known as the ‘Iberian oven’ because of the winds that blow up from North Africa, is the epicentre of one of the world’s most heatwave-afflicted countries. Sevillanos are used to elaborate heat mitigation measures. These include rainwater-fed water-misting systems in high footfall areas; a network of underground, aqueduct-style chambers that can lower ambient temperatures at street level by up to 9C; street-spanning awnings; and ‘urban cool islands’— sanctuaries of dense vegetation that are deployed here and in Los Angeles, Singapore, Paris and dozens of other cities.

Attractions such as the Royal Alcázar of Seville shifting to evening opening times is another common-sense measure. The concept of ‘noctourism’ — exploration after dark, in part to mitigate high daytime temperatures — is being embraced everywhere from Rome’s Colosseum to the Acropolis in Athens, which has faced regular closures in high summer due to recent heatwaves.

Arcas Travel Services, which runs tours in Greece, says it has started to push its archaeology-themed trips into the shoulder seasons due to heat-related closures of key sites. Meanwhile, the company’s cycling tours are being tailored towards early starts and earlier finishes. Often it’s the operator rather than travellers taking the lead, highlighting one of the key concerns: the lack of awareness around the dangers of extreme heat.

Dr Mehri Khosravi is a heat expert at the University of East London and grew up in Tehran, where temperatures of 40C-plus are not uncommon. She says part of the problem is the absence of a “culture of heat” among visitors to heatwave-affected regions — those societal and behavioural adaptations that cover everything from clothing to the pacing of the day. “The perception is still that heat is a desirable thing,” she says. “Behaviour [in tourism] is going to have to adapt and the key to that is risk communication.”

The growing accuracy of long-term forecasting is a considerable asset when it comes to climate event alerts. Saez Reale believes it’ll become increasingly common for meteorological services to liaise with tourism bodies about extreme weather, in the way they currently do with health authorities. Travellers booking later and embracing flexibility in both where and when their holidays take place is another anticipated trend. “The good news is that there’s an awful lot that can be done,” he says.

Upsides in heatwave-driven changes to tourism patterns are certainly possible to discern. One is the potential for a more even distribution of travellers both geographically and seasonally; tourism puts immense strain on local resources such as water and healthcare — particularly in times of sustained heat. Investment in climate-resilient infrastructure to allay traveller concerns has a clear benefit to local populations, too.

But the biggest positive, says Jenny Southan, CEO of travel trend forecasting agency Globetrender, may be one of outlook. “Travellers are becoming more climate-conscious, even if there’s an inherent tension between the desire to explore and the environmental cost of doing so. Climate pressure may act as a catalyst for a more thoughtful, intentional era of travel.”

For shoulder-season converts Heike and Robert Taylor, heatwaves may have altered the structure and rhythm of their year, but not necessarily for the worse. “Going away earlier or later in the year, rather than in the summer peak, you can get a more authentic sense of what a place is really like,” says Heike.