FEWER and fewer Irish people are opting to head to Greece and Spain during peak summer times due to unbearable heat.
Travel agents have said that there a number of trends which show the way people globetrot is changing.
Most of the changes are as a result of scorching hot temperatures in what were once popular sunny spots.
The World Meteorological Organisation recently found that Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent.
And both Spain and Greece have seen temperatures reach a sweltering 40C this year alone.
Traditional holiday hotspots in both countries are being ditched in favour of more bearable temperatures in northern Europe.
One Dublin-based travel agent, Claire Doherty, told RTE that there has been “definitely a decline” in the number of people going to European sunspots during the summer.
She explained that the people who do go to areas such as Spain and Greece are going at different times of the year to escape the heat.
It’s much more likely that travellers will opt to go in April, May, or September and October.
Previously, May and September would have been the busiest months, according to Doherty.
She said that months and later in the year, called the “shoulder periods” are much busier now.
Meanwhile travel to places like Norway is up 50 per cent, partly due to the cooler climate.
The trend was also noticed by travel writer Sarah Slattery, founder of The Travel Expert.
She explained that it’s now cheaper to travel to certain places in July instead of June, which was previously almost unheard of.
She told RTE: “Definitely, in the last year or two, there’s been a big change.
“I noticed only literally this week when I was doing my travel-deals posts that it was cheaper to go away in July than it was to go at the end of June, which really never happens.”
FLIGHTS RISE
And while previously, there were no direct flights from Dublin to Bergen in Norway, a twice weekly flight from Dublin Airport began two years ago.
Since then, that number has risen to four weekly flights, indicating a demand for travel to the Scandinavian country.
Other experts say that a demand for more bearable temperatures is driving tourism to Ireland.
Findings from research funded by Clare County Council and University of Limerick suggest that a rise in Irish tourism is down to people seeking milder climates.
PhD Student at the University of Limerick Ernesto Batista told RTE that their research saw the team interview tourists at the famous Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare.
He said: “We found out that most of them were saying they were coming because of the temperatures and mild weather conditions.”
Batista added that most of the people were from France, Spain, and other countries that saw a heatwave in 2023.
He called the emerging trends “a very new phenomenon that we’re actually seeing” and added that more research needs to be done into the issue.
