around the world looking to grow their economy and understand the importance of aviation to enable them to do that. and i think it s very important that we do acknowledge our impact and demonstrate our commitment to addressing it. well, on that point, willie walsh, the big boss of iata, always great to talk to you, my friend. good luck with everything. and i ll check in with you soon. thank you. good to talk to you. you know, the global travel insurance business, it s thought to be worth around $20 billion a year. and of course, it s another part of the travel and tourism industry that suffered because of the pandemic and still faces yet more turbulence because of climate change. well, germany s allianz is one of the biggest names in the business, so i decided to catch up with the man who runs its travel insurance. tomas kunzmann, a real pleasure having you on my show. tomas, let s just start with this how has your business changed over the past year? quite tremendously, aaron. quite
of the impact climate change is having on this side of the atlantic, i turned to the president of the european tourism commission, whose job is to promote the continent as a tourism destination. miguel sanz, a real pleasure having you on the show. miguel, let s start with this, because for weeks now, we ve had these devastating wildfires spreading right around the mediterranean, hitting tourism dependent countries such as greece, italy and spain pretty badly. miguel, what impact is this having on the travel and tourism industry? well, we do not have figures yet of the impact of these specific wildfires on tourism. what i know is that this has an impact on everyone, every sector of the economy. climate change is something that is affecting the entire economic system of the world, and it s something that we have to tackle, notjust in the tourism industry. i can tell you things like, there is a new net zero hotel in the island of minorca in spain or electricity used by trains
so as our very own michelle fleury explains from new york, there are concerns for travel and tourism. from coast to coast, america is going through one of its hottest summers on record. here in new york city, the high today is 95 degrees fahrenheit. that s about 35 degrees celsius. but that hasn t kept tourists like this family from visiting new york s times square. in the usa, it s really easy because you all have air conditioning. in germany, no stores have all air conditioning, so. we every time stop in the shop and get cold again, and then we go out and it s so hot again. it s really hot. yeah. is it making it hard to walk around? yeah. in california s death valley, tourism picked up, people wanting to experience the hottest place on earth. longer term, the fear is climate change is drying up lakes and harming us ski resorts that have traditionally attracted visitors. overall, the scorching heat hasn t yet cooled down america s summer travel boom. so that was michelle fleury in new
very disturbing and terrible for the people who have been impacted directly by it. and the impact on the local areas that have been affected clearly will be very significant. but the impact on the industry as a whole has been relatively minor. well, 0k. well, let me talk about that local impact, because as we know, look, airlines play an absolutely crucial role in the travel and tourism industry. that industry itself accounts for something like 10% of the european union s economy. so when those areas suffer from this disruption, you know, surely there s a knock on effect for those economies? you know, tourism in greece is, i think, about 18% of their economy. it s very, very significant. in fact, greece was the country that opened fastest after the pandemic, or during the period of the pandemic, because of the importance of tourism to their economy. what we ve seen in the past is that they do tend to recover pretty quickly,
in some of the countries. it is fully renewable. and things like that that we are rapidly growing a transition to a more sustainable travel industry. your research shows that there s been a fall in the number of people hoping to travel to the mediterranean between the months ofjune and november to countries that have, well, certainly seen the worst of the wildfires. miguel, just explain that a bit more, because i m wondering, is that here to stay? our latest report shows that there is a 10% less interest in travelling in the peak months of the summer in european domestic travel, especially to southern destinations. but there is an increase in interest in travelling in the shoulder seasons, in spring and autumn, of 5% and 3%. and i think that this has to do not just with climate change it might be a cause but it also has to do with prices