How Climate Change Now Affects Our Travels

This the second post of my three-part series on climate change. The first dealt with changes I’ve observed and experienced throughout 50 years of international travel.

In this post, I focus on the ways climate change affects our travels around the world — right now.

Complicated Air Travel

Hotter conditions make the air less dense, and planes need to generate more lift by going faster to take off. High temperatures make it harder for aircraft to get off the ground, and may even prevent takeoffs.

In one recent incident, airlines flying out of Las Vegas had to reduce passenger numbers, remove baggage, and reduce their fuel levels.

Effects of climate change can also create stronger turbulence, which can create stress and discomfort. Last May, one passenger died and 83 were injured when a Singapore Airlines flight hit severe turbulence, forcing an emergency landing. In July, on a flight from Spain to Uruguay, severe turbulence put 40 passengers in the hospital.

Climate change research suggests turbulence will get worse because of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. A 2023 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that severe or greater clear-air turbulence increased by 55 percent between 1979 and 2020.

Extreme turbulence requiring hospitalization is relatively rare; according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, in 2023 there were 20 reported instances of serious turbulence injuries.

Disrupted Plans

Stronger and more frequent storms, along with record global temperatures and their complications have set up travel cancellations across the world.

Greece — where travel and tourism make up around 15 percent of their Gross Domestic Product — has had to evacuate over 2,000 people after wildfires broke out on the island of Rhodes, according to the World Economic Forum. Athens had to close its top tourist attraction, the Acropolis, after temperatures reached 113 degrees.

“The climate crisis is already here,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “It will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters.”

Many warm-weather vacation spots are becoming hot-weather spots. And in response, tourists are increasingly choosing trips to cooler countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland and Bulgaria.

Affected Timing

Besides making tourists opt for cooler destinations, rising temperatures mean more tourists are traveling in spring and autumn rather than in the summer, so travelers can no longer count on uncrowded shoulder seasons.

There has already been a 10 percent drop in the number of people planning to visit the Mediterranean in June-November, according to the European Travel Commission.

Vulnerable Coastal Regions

Coastal tourism accounts for more than 80 percent of U.S. tourism, and more than 60 percent of European holidays and revenues. Islands and coastal destinations are seeing water levels continue to rise, wildfires and heat waves decimate towns and force tourists to flee.

“Low-lying islands, including the Maldives, could become uninhabitable by 2050,” said Elissa Garay, travel editor and sustainable tourism specialist, in a report by Intrepid Travel. “Destinations that we love because of their connections to the sea are at great risk, including Venice and Amsterdam.”

Warming waters affect coral bleaching, and increasing droughts are already impacting the Caribbean’s tourism potential.

Unpredictable and powerful storms put destinations like Miami, New Orleans and the Caribbean at an increased risk. The Caribbean attracted almost 30 million visitors in 2022, and its economy is more reliant on travel and tourism than any other region, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.

Most resorts in the Caribbean are coastal, leaving 60% of them at risk from sea level rise, according to the University of Cambridge. These low-lying areas are seeing sea levels rise almost 10% faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Association.

“As the prime motivation for visitors to come to the region hinges on local landscapes, biodiversity, heritage and cultures, the sector’s survival depends on the ability to retain and preserve as much of these natural resources as possible,” The ASEAN Post reports.

South-East Asia’s most popular coastal destinations are also suffering environmental damage from factors including pollution and overtourism. Thailand’s Maya Bay, Malaysia’s Sipadan Island and the Philippines’ Boracay Island are all being impacted, and some countries in the region are now closing tourist spots to give the most damaged areas time to recover, according to the Harvard School of Public Health.

Land Loss, Snow Loss

Large scale land loss is already eating into Mediterranean’s beaches, according to Germany’s Federal Environment Agency. One beach in Mallorca now has space for half the amount of huts it used to have, DW News reports.

Skiing and snowboarding are top of many visitor lists, and cold-weather tourism is critical to the economies of many local towns and regions around the world. The Alps region attracts around 120 million tourists a year, but rising global temperatures have reduced seasonal snow cover in the Alps by 8.4% per decade in the past 50 years.

Are these climate change problems solvable? In the last post of the series we’ll focus on how much travelers affect climate change, and what travelers can do about improving our behaviors to help our planet.

I recently spoke about travel and climate change at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Check out the discussion on my YouTube channel Places I Remember: Travel Talk with Lea Lane. Also, for all travel topics, check out my award-winning travel podcast, Places I Remember with Lea Lane.