Heatwaves and climate change, according to the Tourism Union International(TUI) CEO, may influence travellers’ decision to travel to cooler locales and schedule their vacations for spring or fall.
The tourism industry may benefit from tourists choosing to visit Greece in November, according to the tour operator’s CEO, Sebastian Ebel.
He went on to say that locations like the shoreline of Belgium or Poland might become more well-known.
The company TUI reported that the cost of the Rhodes wildfires in July was €25 million (£21.5 million).
8,000 of TUI’s clients were reportedly evacuated from the Greek island. However, according to the German business, 80% of its island visitors were unaffected.
Mr. Ebel complained that the weather was “not as it was described” and that when he arrived in Rhodes on “the first day” of the fires, he was “surprised” to see that there was no visible fire.
When wildfires erupted in Rhodes and other regions of Greece, almost 20,000 people were forced to flee their homes, including thousands of vacationers from the UK.
Some people compared the sensation to “being thrown into a disaster movie.” After wildfires rendered some vacation destinations untenable, people were forced to sleep in schools and sports facilities while they awaited flights home.
reservations for last week were 5% higher than they were for the same period last year, in keeping with a general resurgence in holiday reservations following the pandemic, according to TUI, who claimed that the events only temporarily hampered demand.
However, the wildfires cost the company €25 million in cancellations, compensation, repatriation flights, and welfare expenses. Compensation as well as expenditures associated with welfare and return flights.
According to TUI, the event demonstrated that booking a package holiday with an operator gave “great advantages and comprehensive service in extraordinary situations”.
According to Mr. Ebel, the company plans to increase the number of locations it offers in order to reduce future dangers of a similar nature.
Although Mr. Ebel said the Mediterranean region remained one of the top tourist destinations, countries with more temperate climates, like the Nordic states, may become more well-liked vacation spots.
He continued by saying that TUI might offer new insurance for visitors coming to regions hit by disruptions brought on by climate change.
For the first time since the pandemic, the company recorded a third-quarter profit on Wednesday. Bookings for the summer of 2023 increased by 6% year over year and returned to levels that were 95% higher than those of 2019.
The appeal of summer vacations and its clients’ continued willingness to prioritise spending on travel and experiences, according to TUI, were also factors in its price increases.
Turkey, the Caribbean, the Balearics, Greece, the Canaries, and Cape Verde were listed as the most popular summer travel locations.