Planning his graduation trip to Europe, Jaeger Lajewski pondered Italy’s renaissance buildings and Greece’s ancient monuments. But with those places now even hotter and more humid than his native New Jersey, he went for less traditional Scandinavia.
“We wanted to go somewhere a little bit cooler and more temperate,” the architecture graduate from University of Virginia says while milling around the ferries that take tourists out to the Stockholm archipelago. “Going to Italy, Greece or Croatia would have been really, really hot as well. And we wanted to see something different.”
From wildfires to extreme heat, global warming has created new threats to Europe’s top summer destinations. This past May marked the 12th consecutive month of record-breaking temperatures for the planet, with the global average 1.52C higher than pre-industrial levels. Already this year, Greece has been forced to close its famous Acropolis during the hottest parts of the day to keep tourists safe from deadly heat.
Lajewski and his friends aren’t the only ones to forego endless sun in southern Europe for cooler weather up north. It’s a trend that’s become so popular there’s now a name for it, “coolcationing,” promoted by lifestyle magazines and marketers around the world. Vacationers seeking respite from unbearable heat have the potential to bolster Scandinavia’s travel and tourism industry, which added an estimated $124 billion to the regional economy in 2023, up about 6% from the year before.
The Nordic businesses that spoke with Bloomberg — from tour operators to gift shops — predict this could be a bumper year. Scandinavia is “having a moment” 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%. Flight searches from UK airports to Copenhagen, Bergen, Norway and Stockholm for this summer are also up by double-digit percentages, according to travel search engine KAYAK.
Friday we leave for a seven week trip primarily to Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Our experience, last time we visited Italy during the summer caused a sea-change in our opinion.
Despite the fact that we love traveling in Italy, and have cumulatively spent weeks driving or training around the country, we found the summer temperatures are now oppressively hot and the cities packed with tourists. On our last trip, we literally saw every museum in Rome - not because they were are equally interesting, but rather because they were all air conditioned.
With Kilimanjaro’s snow melting, Southern Europe’s summer temperature approaching that of Saharan Africa, Alaska’s snow melting and nearly every glacier in the world melting back, those who don’t believe in climate change may as well believe the earth is flat and has the sun as its satellite.
While we have had the ability to see much of the world in its “natural state” over the past few decades, unfortunately, the next generation is unlikely to be able to repeat the experience.
I said something sarcastic about 1 degree to a new business client. He shot back that he does not want to hear it. He pulled rank in that situation. I stopped immediately. My only thought was what a spoiled brat he is on his high perch. Clearly, he was supporting TFG. I left no further impression on him. The rest of it went smoothly.
Someone else this evening at the local market began to say prices were going wild. I said prices had stabilized. She was having problems with that. That was an undeclared political battle over the bottom-line issue of price stability. The issue is central now. It will be front and center with the next inflation reports.
This coming week may see a first in American history. It is now or never. The pressure is on. My dad retired within weeks of his 82nd birthday. He said it was time. He retired with grace.
Does not matter if all I have is a dogcatcher the issue of price stability is the central issue.
The big news for several years now, inflation, is well over for quite a while to come. Rents are falling. The prices of homes are falling. This is happening broadly across the nation, not just in the South.
One of my sisters is selling her home. I do not want to get into much detail. She has had to reduce her price considerably in a neighborhood just outside of Cambridge, MA. The realtor has said of the seven comps in the area, her home is in the best condition. Of note, she is now offering the buying agent a higher percentage.
It is hard to explain to those who don’t remember (or never took) Econ 101 that inflated prices don’t go down - even if inflation drops to zero) - they just stop rising. If prices begin to drop across the board, we potentially have even bigger problems (again, difficult to explain to flat-earthers).
As I said of the seven comps the best. The problems, the comps have a commuter train across the street through some woods that people do not want and her kitchen is NOT entertainment sized with an island.
Other than that the house is excellent.
The third problem might be the bigger factor. If you do not give the buying agent a bigger commission your chances of selling are reduced.