Fifth Tourist Dies in Greek Heatwave – Can European Destinations Do More to Prepare?
Photo Credit: Tourists at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Flickr / Michael Pieracci
Skift Take
A fifth tourist has died due to high temperatures in Greece this month. The country is acting quickly to close down popular attractions. But this is only the start of the summer, and Southern European cities are likely to face one climate-related disaster after the next.
As Southern European tourist destinations face increasingly hot summers and higher threats of wildfires, governments and tourism ministries are left scrambling. Scientists say it’s possible to foresee these events four to five weeks in advance, but most cities don’t have strategies in place to prepare for them.
A fifth tourist was found dead in Greece due to unusually high temperatures, police said on Monday. The country has already closed several of its most popular tourism attractions in response to the heat, including the Acropolis.
Authorities said that they are also searching for three more tourists who went missing, including two French women and an American man. One of the women sent a distress message to her guest house owner saying she had fallen. The deaths and disappearances are being attributed to a heatwave, which is classified as temperatures exceeding 38 celsius or 100.4 Fahrenheit.
This event is the earliest heatwave on record
