Prime Minister of Greece: "Climate change is an opportunity to expand the tourist season"

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that climate change could be a favorable factor for the development of tourism in the country.

In an interview Bloomberg TV last Friday the Greek Prime Minister said that “climate change is an opportunity to expand the tourist season,” in effect repeating New Democracy’s immutable doctrine that “every crisis is an opportunity.” [заработать]”.

Mitsotakis said Greece could benefit from climate change as it would help attract tourists beyond the traditional summer months.

“Greece is a wonderful country to visit and beyond the very hot months of July and August, we have been able to extend the tourist season and attract significant investment in sustainable tourism.”
Excerpt from the interview transcript:
Journalist: I’ve talked to people in Scandinavia and they believe they will be the big beneficiaries of this. They believe that people will no longer want to go to places like Greece if it’s 45 degrees and there are fires burning. What do you think is the long-term trajectory of Greek tourism? If we continue to observe this climate, these climate changes?
Mitotakis: People still like the hot Mediterranean and they really want to come to the Mediterranean and Greece in particular in the summer because they like to spend time on the beach.
because they like to spend time on the beach. For that matter, I would argue that climate change is an opportunity
Climate change is an opportunity for us to expand the tourist season.
Yes, it may be difficult to come to Greece in July and August, but we will always have enough people willing to come in these two months.

But now we have more people interested in traveling to Greece in March and April or in October and November, more people interested in visiting our cities all year round.
Expanding the tourist season has always been an important priority for us, and I think there will be more people who, given the choice, will choose to forego a holiday in July or August, not only because it may be too hot, but also because there are too many people there.
So this is a great opportunity for us to expand the tourist season, as well as open new destinations on the mainland to visit. So it will still be some time before Scandinavian beaches, Danish or Swedish, can compete with Scandinavian beaches.
Swedish beaches will compete with Greek ones.

Journalist: I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. I’ll pass on this message next time I see them. However, you have been criticized for your handling of this year’s bushfires. What lessons do you think you have learned?

Mitsotakis: Look, I mean the climate crisis is here and it’s here for good. We have always faced forest fires in the Mediterranean, but this year they have been particularly intense, and we have also experienced unprecedented flooding. Therefore, it is clear that we need to pay more attention to short-term adaptation.
And this, of course, is the argument that I present to my European colleagues. We are spending trillions of euros on long-term mitigation, and rightly so, because we want to be leaders in the climate transition. But we also need to support people when
when they lose their livelihoods, their homes as a result of climate disasters today. Therefore, we must be much more effective in combating these scourges. We have made good progress.”

The full version of the interview, including a transcript, is on the website Bloomberg TV.

https://twitter.com/libo_libo/status/1705930032370024582

#Mitsotakis: Climate change will increase the country’s tourist season. It will look like this…

PS The Greek Prime Minister is right: Who cares about the damage caused to the lives and economic base of approximately 300 thousand people in central Greece, the destruction of forests in Evros, the fires on one of the most tourist islands of the country – Rhodes. They can all build a swimming pool at home and play hoteliers.

https://twitter.com/Irw39757317/status/1706014424090206560

And if one day there is no tourism, we will all go down…

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