Unlikely European country overrun with tourists escaping 43C heatwave

A Scandinavian country is seeing a “significant increase” in tourism as holiday makers escape the sweltering heatwave in southern Europe.

As temperatures in popular holiday destinations such as Italy, Spain and Greece soar to 43C more and more tourists are flocking to cooler destinations in the north.

Denmark, home to beautiful architecture, has become an increasingly popular choice for those looking to escape the scorching summer heat.

Over the last month, heatwaves have gripped many countries in Europe pushing authorities to issue health alerts for the locals and tourists.

A recent study conducted by the IS Global Institute in Barcelona analysed the impact of heatwaves in 800 regions in 35 European countries in 2023, finding a total of 47,690 deaths attributable to high temperatures.

As a result tourists are turning their back on southern Europe and opting for Denmark where the national average temperature in July was 16.2C, according to DMI, the official Danish meteorological institute.

At the height of summer the sun doesn’t set until around 10pm in Denmark with daytime temperatures peaking at a warm 25C.

Copenhagen’s hospitality industry, which traditionally caters to tourists from northern Europe and the United States, has noticed a significant increase in visitors from southern Europe.

Karim Nielsen, the CEO of Kolpin Hotels which owns Hotel Sanders in Copenhagen, believes Denmark’s tourism increase is something they have seen “coming for the last five to six years but the last two years” in particular have been the busiest.

“We definitely see a big increase in southern European tourism. It’s France, it’s Greece, it’s Spain, and Italy,” Mr Nielsen, told Euronews.

He added: “And, here at Hotel Sanders, we normally have something like 80 percent Americans, but that number is actually decreasing a little bit. And we see especially from Spain and Italy, we have approximately 10 percent of our occupancy from southern Europe now. That’s a quite big increase from formal numbers from three-four percent.”

According to data from Visit Denmark, the Official Tourism Organisation of Denmark, the number of Italian and French tourists visiting the capital region this June has surged by 23 percent, growing from around 49,000 in 2019 to nearly 60,000 in 2024

The new influx of tourists are not just coming from southern Europe but other parts of northern Europe such as the Netherlands and Belgium, according to Rasmussen, the owner of Jungshoved Præstegaard, a traditional Danish B&B in Præstø.

“It’s also not only people from the southern part of Europe. It’s also people who used to travel to the southern part, but now choose the north and find out the quality we have. In the middle of the summer, we have much, much longer nights. We call them the white nights even”, said Rasmussen.