Global Warming to Make Denmark a Summer Beach Hotspot

Fancy a beach holiday in sunny Denmark? As unlikely as that sounds, the Scandinavian country may someday be a top travel pick for summer seaside getaways - and it's all thanks to global warming.

Climate change may be intensifying storms in the Asia Pacific and forest fires in Australia, but it might also be improving summer weather in Denmark, according to an international research project partially funded by the Danish Meteorology Board (DMI). The study, undertaken by a group of Greek researchers, finds that the consequences can include an increase in floods, torrential downpours and the melting of Greenland's ice sheet. However, a world that is warmer by 2 degrees Celsius may prove beneficial to Denmark in some ways.

The Greek researchers sought to come up with projected summer temperatures for a range of countries in Europe. Their resulting report states that only two other European countries - Andorra and Luxembourg - are expected to see higher temperature increases than Denmark.

"Denmark takes third place amongst the countries that will see a positive increase in the tourism-climate index during summer months," comments Cathrine Fox Maule, a climate researcher at DMI who has closely followed the research project. Or as The Local DK puts it, "the broad, flat sands of Denmark's windswept coast might one day find themselves transformed into a northern Costa del Sol."

Maule proves more cautious in her conclusions. She notes that while the researchers find that present-day summer destinations such as Spain, Portugal and Greece are bound to get uncomfortably hot in the future, Spain is likely to remain the choice summer vacation pick over Denmark. What the warmer climate can offer is to make Denmark more competitive against Spain than it is today.

Nyheder TV 2 reports that John Frederiksen, a Danish trade union vice chairman, welcomes the increase in business, if not global warming in general. "Although it's not necessarily an encouraging thing overall, it's positive that Denmark will be become a more attractive holiday destination, since it will mean an increase in employment opportunities in the sector," notes Frederiksen, who oversees the hotel and restaurant industry. He adds, "It will be easier for our members to find jobs in hotels and restaurants."