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Planning his graduation trip to Europe, Jaeger Lajewski pondered Italy\u2019s\u00a0renaissance buildings and Greece\u2019s ancient monuments. But with\u00a0those places\u00a0now even hotter and more humid<\/a>\u00a0than\u00a0his native New Jersey, he went for less traditional Scandinavia.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to go somewhere a little bit cooler and more temperate,\u201d the architecture graduate from University of Virginia says while milling around the ferries that take tourists out to the Stockholm archipelago. \u201cGoing to\u00a0Italy, Greece or Croatia<\/a>\u00a0would have been really, really hot as well. And we wanted to see something different. We haven\u2019t really explored this region of Europe before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n From\u00a0wildfires<\/a>\u00a0to extreme heat, global warming has created new threats to Europe\u2019s top summer destinations. This past May marked the\u00a012th-consecutive month<\/a>\u00a0of record-breaking temperatures for the planet, with the\u00a0global average 1.52C higher<\/a>\u00a0than pre-industrial levels. Already this year Greece has been forced to close its\u00a0famous Acropolis<\/a>\u00a0during the hottest parts of the day to keep tourists safe from deadly heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lajewski and his friends aren\u2019t the only ones to forego endless sun in southern Europe for cooler weather up north. It\u2019s a trend that\u2019s become so popular there\u2019s now a name for it, \u201ccoolcationing<\/a>,\u201d promoted by lifestyle\u00a0magazines and marketers around the world. Vacationers seeking respite from unbearable heat have the potential to bolster Scandinavia\u2019s travel and tourism industry, which\u00a0added an estimated $124 billion<\/a>\u00a0to the regional economy in 2023, up about 6% from the year before.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Nordic businesses that spoke with Bloomberg \u2014\u00a0from tour operators to gift shops \u2014\u00a0predict this could be a bumper year. Scandinavia is \u201chaving a moment\u201d with a 27% rise in bookings compared to last summer, says Misty Belles, spokeswoman for Virtuoso, a network for some 20,000 luxury travel advisers. Sweden, alone, has seen a 47% bump, she says. Italy, by contrast, is only up 3%.\u00a0Flight searches from UK airports to\u00a0Copenhagen<\/a>, Bergen, Norway and Stockholm for this summer are also up by double-digit percentages, according to travel search engine KAYAK.<\/p>\n Research commissioned<\/a>\u00a0by the European Union shows that a warming world has the potential to create a\u00a0tectonic shift<\/a>\u00a0in travel on the continent. In its most alarming scenario, where global average temperatures increase by 4C, Greece could see tourism demand\u00a0slump by more than 7%, compared with 2019. By the same account, Sweden, Denmark and Finland\u00a0would see demand rise by more than 6%.<\/p>\n While Scandinavia isn\u2019t totally immune to the extreme weather brought on by global warming, debilitating heat waves are still very rare. Temperatures tend to be at least 10C (18F) below southern Europe and a cool breeze is more typical than the choking humidity familiar further south.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s conducive for the wide range of activities on offer. While it\u2019s perfectly possible to spend a week chilling on the beach in Denmark\u00a0(the best ones are\u00a0rivaling those in the Mediterranean<\/a>), more foreigners come for the hiking,\u00a0reindeers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0northern lights<\/a>. Or to explore the trendy art, design and culture scenes in Oslo, Stockholm and Copenhagen. Winter tourism is also getting a boost because of the\u00a0lack of snow in the Alps<\/a>, with resorts upgrading to meet the standards of an international clientele.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, it is a disturbing reality that\u00a0climate change is impacting a time of the year many people hope\u00a0to switch off from life\u2019s stresses. A VisitDenmark survey among more than 9,000 people across seven European countries found that almost half had experienced extreme weather on their holidays last year, including heat waves. Two thirds said they will change their behavior as a result. This could mean\u00a0booking trips at other times of the year or closer to departure, as well as picking other destinations or even limiting traveling abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Copenhagen\u2019s Tivoli amusement park, which opened\u00a0in 1843 and still sports a roller coaster made of wood, staff\u00a0say they have seen a change in the usual mix of visitors from nearby\u00a0Sweden or Norway. More\u00a0guests from\u00a0southern Europe,\u00a0Latin America, the US, UK and Asia are entering\u00a0through the gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Among those taking in the sights and rides at Tivoli, was a group of tourists from New Delhi. They booked their holiday in early June,\u00a0when the weather in Copenhagen was mixed, with temperatures between 10C and 20C.<\/p>\n \u201cWe live in heat, we live in so much sun, so we wanted some colder weather,\u201d says Rishi Khan, a textile merchant. \u201cBack home it\u2019s 50 degrees [Celsius]. One day it even reached 52, so we decided to come to Europe to experience cooler temperatures\u2026Denmark was a good choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Over in Stockholm, foreign languages\u00a0could be heard all around the main tourist hotspots on one\u00a0sunny morning in late June.\u00a0English, Spanish, German and French speakers chatted as they meandered through the\u00a0narrow alleyways of the oldest part of the city dating back to the Middle Ages. Outside the\u00a0palace, home of the Swedish monarch, a\u00a0group of Brazilian teenagers were watching a Royal Guards parade with horses and music.\u00a0<\/p>\n Climate change isn\u2019t the full story behind Scandinavia\u2019s tourism uptick. Currency depreciation in Norway and Sweden have made\u00a0those countries more attractive to foreigners.\u00a0The region is also in many ways benefiting from a rising tide in post-Covid\u00a0travel around the world. And\u00a0southern Europe is still attracting more travelers\u00a0this\u00a0summer \u2014\u00a0despite the risks extreme temperatures\u00a0pose to the human body<\/a>. The heat-related death of\u00a0British celebrity doctor Michael Mosley<\/a>\u00a0on the Greek island of Symi in early June made grim headlines, but tourists are continuing to flood\u00a0Athens airport.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nordic tourism agencies are keen to pitch their region as a place where travelers can safely explore the great outdoors in the middle of summer. \u201cWhen you have these heat waves on the continent, the playgrounds are too hot for children to play, attractions are closed and you end up having to stay indoors most of the time,\u201d says Nina Kjonigsen, a spokeswoman for Visit Norway. \u201cPeople want to be outside during summer and enjoy themselves \u2014\u00a0to bike, hike, eat, play \u2014 so more people are starting to look toward the north.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Aker Brygge harbour in Oslo, a family of four from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is relaxing on a bench. The sun is out and at 26C, it\u2019s unusually warm. The kids ask for sunblock from their mother, Sara Batterjee, an interior designer. The family\u00a0usually goes to southern or central Europe for their summer holidays,\u00a0Batterjee says,\u00a0but after getting increasingly concerned by extreme weather, they headed to the Nordics for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe came for the amazing scenery, and of course for the weather,\u201d she says. \u201cWe went to Switzerland last summer, we had a lot of fun, but it was too hot. So we thought let\u2019s go a bit north to explore more pleasant weather.\u201d<\/p>\n As 2024 is on track to be the\u00a0hottest year on record<\/a>, Batterjee says the warmer weather will impact how they travel in the future. \u201cWe will come back to Norway, for sure,\u201d she says. \u201cNow we are trying to find the best route, flying from Jeddah.\u201d<\/p>\n Even on the Nordic periphery, in the far north of the Atlantic, Iceland is benefiting from\u00a0a 49% increase in bookings this summer, according to Virtuoso. Cruise ships are making more frequent stops on routes between Canada, Greenland and Norway, giving a jolt to the local economy,\u00a0says Johanna Carlsen, who runs the office for Gateway to Iceland.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI have also driven many people as a taxi driver who are fleeing the hot climate at home,\u201d says Carlsen. \u201cThere is a great increase from South America and the hotter states of the US.\u201d<\/p>\n Bangladeshi-born Shakhawat Hossain agrees. His tourist store in Stockholm\u2019s old town sells everything from hoodies and caps to fridge magnets and cups. He\u2019s run the shop for 10 years and says that business is booming again, largely due to more foreign tourists after a Covid plunge. He expects sales to jump about 15% this summer from last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few doors down is a Swedish handicraft store. Sales assistant Nour, who didn\u2019t want to give his surname, says that the peak season started much earlier this year, with a lot of tourists from abroad. The boom began with Americans heading over to see\u00a0Taylor Swift<\/a>\u00a0and hasn\u2019t stopped. The pop star held three concerts on May 17-19 in Stockholm as part of the European leg of The Eras Tour.<\/p>\n To be sure, coolcations may be a bit of a misnomer. After all, it can get beachy hot in Scandinavian cities in the summer. When Khan and his friends visited Tivoli, Copenhagen had its hottest day of the year with the mercury exceeding 30C. Also, climate change means average temperatures are rising everywhere \u2014 and this is especially true in\u00a0latitudes furthest away<\/a>\u00a0from the equator, which are warming at the greatest rate. Meanwhile, global warming doesn\u2019t\u00a0just mean heat, but also increased risks for natural disasters like floods and wildfires.<\/p>\n Back in Stockholm, Kazu Hirano, a mechanical engineer from Japan, is admiring the view over the parliament building from the palace. He\u2019s taking in the city for five days with his partner before flying south to the center of the European heat. The conference in Athens he was looking forward to attending no longer appeals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be really hot!\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m worried.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n