Greece and Turkey wildfires: Is it safe to travel to popular holiday hotspots?

Greece and Turkey wildfires: Is it safe to travel to popular holiday hotspots Source: The Independent

Transcript

00:00It's another summer of extreme temperatures in Greece where I am right now and the rest of the

00:08eastern Mediterranean in particular Turkey and Cyprus. Just to put you in the picture,

00:15as July turns into August we have seen wildfires spreading in the northern suburbs of Athens as

00:24well as on the Greek islands of Kythira and Evia. Earlier in July there were evacuations from

00:32resorts in southeastern Crete and well with the temperatures seemingly excessive every year

00:42it's really important to understand what the advice is from the authorities. The Greek Civil

00:50Protection Organization says that most wildfires are actually started as a result of human activity so

00:58you should follow all the obvious rules there so that you don't cause a problem and well the NHS

01:06warns that besides the dangers from wildfires there are serious issues with high temperatures from

01:13anybody who's under five or over 65 as well as those with pre-existing medical conditions particularly

01:22things like heart and breathing problems and also diabetes. A number of people are asking well

01:30if I am looking at the reports checking the weather and it is clearly going to be getting on for 40

01:38degrees when I get there can I change my trip and I'm afraid that generally the travel companies will say

01:46no this is what you really have to expect if you are going to be in the Mediterranean at this time of year.

01:55It's conceivable if you have for example got a travel insurance policy which you have taken out which

02:02specifies that you've got a particular medical condition and that would be most demonstrably

02:09affected by extreme heat that you could change or cancel your trip and get a refund that might also apply

02:18talking to the travel company as well as your travel insurer. Does this mean that we're going to be

02:25moving to more northerly latitudes such as the UK or the Nordic countries? Well the UK I was speaking to

02:35the tourism minister Sir Chris Bryant and he said we're still down on pre-Covid levels so that's not

02:42really happening. There are more flights to places like Iceland, Norway and Finland in summer than there have

02:50ever been but I've just taken a look at flights for the coming week on EasyJet from Manchester. There is

02:57one to Reykjavik in Iceland, there are nine to Egypt, Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada where you will be finding

03:06temperatures of probably 40 degrees which is striking me as getting close to being unfit for human

03:14habitation. PM on the Greek island of Lesbos and it is still very very warm.