Tourism in a Warming Climate: Tourist Experiences and Adaptive Responses to Rising Temperatures in Southern Europe Destinations

Abstract

Southern Europe is a climate change hotspot, with rising temperatures threatening the region’s tourism industry. While existing research has focused on supply-side adaptations and macro-level demand shifts, this study examines the demand side—tourist experience and adaptive behaviors at the micro-experiential level, with implications for broader discussions of resilience and adaptive capacity. The study analyzed 6466 TripAdvisor reviews from 11 open-air heritage sites in Italy, Greece, Spain, and Malta, linking reviews to site-relative thermal exposure tertiles and applying dictionary-based text matching with mixed-effects models. Under hotter conditions, tourists were significantly more likely to mention heat, thermal discomfort, and coping resources such as shade and drinking water, with co-occurrence patterns indicating that discomfort and relief-oriented infrastructure are narrated together. Yet overall satisfaction ratings remained uniformly high and statistically unaffected by temperature, revealing a paradox wherein experiential strain intensifies while evaluative scores stay stable. These findings suggest patterns consistent with behavioral and cognitive adaptive responses, whereby positive evaluations are maintained despite heightened thermal stress, and indicate that narrative-based indicators may capture experiential shifts that conventional satisfaction metrics miss.