Climate Change Is Making ‘Best Time To Visit’ Vacation Planning Obsolete
Planning the perfect vacation is dependent on a lot of specific factors. Besides the location, one must take into consideration the time of year, tourist opportunities, and weather conditions. Many people research the “best time to visit” their destination to ensure they get the most out of their travel experience.
However, in today’s world, many people are facing climate-driven disruptions when it comes to planning their vacations. Summers are extremely hot, winters are extremely cold, and the seasons in between are just as unpredictable when it comes to weather events and how it will impact a multitude of destinations.
Australia, for example, recorded the hottest March on record this year and Japan’s famous cherry blossom season saw the beautiful trees blooming earlier than ever this year.
“The planet’s warming since around 1980 is making heatwaves, droughts and floods more frequent and severe. All three of these are most common during summer, when travel peaks,” said Jonathan Erdman, senior meteorologist at The Weather Company‘s weather.com, to the BBC.
“Extremely wet and dry periods can happen any time of year – including shoulder season – if the weather pattern gets stuck for a while.”
One of the most traditional ways that travelers plan their trips is looking into the “best time to visit” their destination. The term refers to the peak travel seasons of particular locations, and often will be the times where the weather is nice, there’s easy access to tourist experiences, and fewer crowds in more popular destinations.
Travel agents have stated their struggle to help their clientele find these ideal times because of how unpredictable the world is now. For example, Juliana Shrestha, co-founder of Duluwa Outdoors, a female-led Nepal-based company that provides educational outdoor experiences, said inconsistency in weather is a major challenge.
“Earlier, when clients asked for a snow trek in December, we could suggest options like Annapurna Base Camp, but now, it’s harder to say confidently whether conditions will be right. We just don’t know anymore,” she said to the BBC.
Reports also show that even short-term weather predictions are less dependable due to the current state of climate change, according to Stanford research.
“When it comes to critical details like current weather conditions, or even basic advice like ‘bring a mask because of the pollution’, they either don’t know or don’t think it’s necessary to share,” Sherestha said.
Shrestha also discussed how within the industry, a lot of agencies omit climate realities which leave their clients unprepared for potential weather events and can ruin a lot of experiences.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but are you treating customers like numbers, or are you guiding them into a thoughtfully curated experience, with transparency?”
“[Some agencies] don’t build an idea of a place based on reality, but an idealized version, and it doesn’t get updated,” said Laura Hall, a travel writer and journalist.
Hall continued to explain that some of the “idealized versions” stem from an avoidance to accept that there are now travel experiences that aren’t the same as they used to be. Social media creates an even greater unrealistic picture of many of the world’s most famous sites, and since most people book their trips months, or even years, in advance, timing can also make it difficult.
“It’s unlikely you’ll be scrolling through news articles while booking and stumble upon a warning that it’s going to be over 40C,” Hall said.
Shrestha said that the industry needs to adopt empathy and the ability to adapt in order to give their clients the best vacation possible. Tour operators should prepare travelers of potential disruptions on their trips by recommending what to pack for unpredictable weather.
Additionally, they need to set realistic expectations and encourage the purchase of travel insurance with backup plans should itineraries fall through. Shrestha also said that for Duluwa Outdoors specifically, they rely on the local’s expertise and ensure all of their guides have visited the sites they recommend at a recent time.
“While we can’t predict exact conditions at the time of booking, this helps us give real-time updates closer to the trip. We don’t believe in blanket answers like, ‘September is the best time,'” says Shrestha.
Susanne Etti, a global environmental impact manager at Inrepid Travel, told the BBC that with extreme weather on the rise more travelers are utilizing what’s known as “shoulder season trips.”
“We’re seeing this trend really take off in Europe, with global bookings for some of our top summer spots, like Italy, Spain and Portugal, shifting to spring and autumn.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, extreme weather disruptions are only going to get worse as time goes on, even if “global warming stays within 1.5C.”
“This reality gives us a real chance to rethink how we design trips, stay agile and build a future for tourism that’s genuinely better,” Etti says.
“A future where destinations can grow sustainably and actually offer travellers a richer, more meaningful experience than they do now.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
