A few years ago, luxury tourists might sojourn to Scandinavia to see the Northern Lights or the Fjords — a classic winter escape characterized by long, dark days and snow-capped mountains. Now, they’re going for their summer vacations, simply to stay in a villa, preferably by a lake.
This isn’t the first case of climate change reshaping luxury travel, says Jenny Southan, founder and CEO of strategic foresight agency Globetrender, nor will it be the last. “The next Riviera may not be on the Mediterranean, but along the Baltic coast or the Norwegian Riviera, where milder summers, dramatic scenery, and cleaner air are becoming increasingly attractive,” she explains. “We’re moving from a ‘sun-seeking economy’ to a ‘comfort-seeking economy’. Increasingly, luxury is defined by places where you can sleep comfortably, walk outdoors at midday, and spend time in nature without worrying about extreme heat.”
This will come as no surprise to European travelers. In recent years, temperatures have been steadily climbing, and the last few weeks have seen near-continuous heat waves with wide-reaching consequences, from melted train tracks to increased investment in air conditioning units, and in some cases, death. At the time of writing, the UK has issued an amber heat-health alert as temperatures are due to top 86°F for 10 consecutive days. In mainland Europe — the fastest-warming continent — temperatures have blown past the 104°F threshold, and July has consistently produced weather 50 to 59°F above historical norms.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Euro summer, just a recalibration, adds Southan. “Travelers are becoming thermal strategists. They’re choosing higher altitudes over lower latitudes, swapping city breaks for lakes, forests and coastlines, and looking for destinations where the climate supports wellbeing instead of undermining it,” she explains. “Rather than abandoning southern Europe, travelers will simply experience it differently — favoring spring, fall, and winter over the intense heat of August.” For many, this is already the case.
For brands, this means rethinking everything from their supply chains to where and when they pop-up, and how they outfit tourists. “Brands should be thinking beyond linen in Positano and toward elevated layering for Scandinavia, technical luxury for alpine escapes, and sophisticated outdoor lifestyles centered on hiking, sailing and wild swimming,” says Southan. Forward-thinking brands are already working on material innovations and manipulations that cater to a broader mix of climates, but there’s a long way to go. “Beauty will also become increasingly climate-responsive. Products that protect against UV, wildfire smoke, dehydration, humidity, and pollution will become as important as traditional holiday beauty staples.”
So how are vacation hotspots changing today, and what does it say about the future of luxury?
The new bucket list
Climate change is prompting some travelers to add new spots to their travel wishlists, and others to rethink this mentality altogether. “You have the traditional bucket list, which often includes the Seven Wonders of the World, and that has always promoted mass tourism,” says Mackay-Lewis. “But we’re increasingly coaching people into places they didn’t even know existed, and showing them what else is possible. When you add scarcity to the mix, your bucket list changes. Maybe you’re a keen diver and you want to see these underwater wonders before they’re completely wiped out. Maybe there are species, wildlife corridors, or migrations you want to see, some of which climate change is shifting and some are on the verge of stopping altogether.” This could include the monarch butterfly migration in North America, the great wildebeest migration in East Africa, or the salmon and river herring runs in the Pacific Northwest.
In the northern region of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, the climate crisis is already impacting wildlife, as well as the luxury travel experiences built around it. Lorraine Doyle is the conservation and sustainability manager at luxury private game reserve Thanda Safari. She says the seasons are becoming less defined, with less predictable and more extreme weather events quickly becoming the norm. “Before, we had a hot, wet season and a cool, dry season. Now, our rainy season is shorter and starts later, and we’re starting to see rainfall in the winter months. We’re not necessarily getting more rain overall, but we’re getting more flood-like events,” says Doyle. “With this incredibly strong El Niño forecast for the next few years, it’s anyone’s guess how we will be affected, but it’s likely to lead to drought in our part of the world.”
The changing climate has a knock-on effect for tourists, who visit expecting to see particular landscapes and wildlife. “These changes shift the ecosystem, affecting everything from insect lifecycles to trees flowering,” Doyle says. “Historically, the winter season from June to August has been drier. That’s the best time for wildlife viewing, because the vegetation thins and there’s no water lying out, so animals are more visible and they’re forced to come down to specific water sources to drink. We have seen extremely heavy rainfall this season, so viewing is more complex and difficult. Plus, when that vegetation dries out, our fire risk will increase substantially.”
For wildlife reserves like Thanda, tourism is an act of conservation, whether tourists realize it or not. “In South Africa and other places, we face a big threat from mining. There is pressure on our land for minerals, and areas with wildlife, which are currently under conservation, tend to have big mineral underlays,” says Doyle. “Tourism helps ensure that wildlife brings as much value to local populations as mining would. We need to conserve these green lands for the production of oxygen — that’s the reality.”
“The concept of luxury is changing,” she continues. “It’s less about the linen thread count in the bedding and more about space, exclusivity, and feeding into the continued existence of wildlife.”
Regeneration is the new relaxation
Climate-conscious tourists want to witness regeneration as much as they want to experience relaxation, says Southan. “The future of luxury travel isn’t about escaping nature — it’s about investing in it. The most desirable hotels of the next decade will be those that actively regenerate landscapes, restore biodiversity, and leave destinations more resilient than they found them,” she explains. “Whether it’s rewilding projects, coral restoration, regenerative vineyards, or climate-resilient architecture, sustainability itself is becoming part of the travel experience.”
Consumer demand for these experiences is steadily rising. In 2016, travel booking site Booking.com surveyed tourists to understand their relationship with sustainability. Just 42% were concerned about traveling more sustainably. By 2025, 93% of respondents said they want to make more sustainable travel choices, and to some extent have done so.
Pelorus has been exploring uncharted territory, offering increasingly exclusive experiences centered about changing climates. When we spoke on Zoom last week, Mackay-Lewis had just come back from West Greenland, where he was scoping out the potential to install mobile camps to accommodate overnight stays. This wouldn’t have been possible before, but the weather from late spring to fall is becoming much more mild due to climate change, and new areas are becoming accessible as the ice melts. “When we started going to Greenland 15 years ago, these were places you would only visit by yacht. They were quite remote, and certainly didn’t have hotels, lodges or camps,” he says. “Now, there are two new international airports, and you can hang out on a canoe, surrounded by icebergs, wearing a T-shirt.”
Pelorus is a licensed operator in both Antarctica and the Arctic, where Mackay-Lewis says demand is rising. Last year, it took a small group of tourists and scientists with special permits and licenses to Antarctica, tagging whales. During the trip, they managed to put the first heart rate monitor on a humpback whale. “That was one of the richest experiences that they would never be able to do normally,” he says. The same applies to a recent trip to Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the High Arctic. “They have a huge plastic problem, coming from all over the world and washing up on the shores there. Whenever we take people on a glacial hike or a beach hike to see walruses, we take bin bags with us, and it becomes a competition to see who can pick up the most interesting trash.”
Pelorus is not the only company offering regeneration and conservation-based experiences. “Dive resorts are frantically offering marine biology experiences to plant corals,” notes Juliet Kinsman, sustainable travel consultant and sustainability editor at Condé Nast Traveller. “It always seems a bit like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. The luxury end of the market has the capital to adapt fastest, but it also has the furthest to fall reputationally if it’s seen to be insulating the wealthy from a crisis everyone else has to live with.”
The relationship between travel and conservation can be a thorny one to navigate, admits Mackay-Lewis. “A lot of people might argue that we shouldn’t be going to these places at all, but I think every time a human being goes somewhere remote, they understand what we’re fighting for a little bit better, and they want to protect it. When you see those walruses, all you want to do is clean up their environment and make sure you leave it better than you found it.”
As luxury travel companies and tourists grapple with their place in a changing world, Kinsman urges both groups to consider not just how to mitigate harm, but how to contribute positively. “Booking with properties and operators that are transparently and respectfully working with local communities, so that those employed can better access education and healthcare, is key,” she says. “The poster hotel for place-based economics is Fogo Island Inn in Canada, which made Newfoundland an alluring must-visit destination — an unlikely rocky Atlantic enclave of former fisherfolk.”
Beyond voluntary measures, regulators are also moving in on the industry. At COP30 in Brazil last year, the French government led the formation of the Global Solidarity Levies Task Force, which wants to charge luxury travelers a so-called solidarity levy that could contribute to climate adaptation and conservation. Pelorus has been doing something similar for a while, charging a 1% levy to its clients, and funneling it back into environmental protection. “If our clients can afford it and they want to access environments only we can offer, then we’re in an interesting position to do this and make sure that money goes back into the environment,” says Mackay-Lewis. “The risk is that funds aren’t handled properly and the initiative backfires. But if it’s executed well it can be very impactful.”
