“People used to come to the Highlands and say, ‘it’s beautiful – shame about the weather’. Now they’re coming for the weather.”
James MacLeod, concierge at the Glencoe House Hotel, in the Scottish Highlands, is talking about how he has noticed a big shift in visitors’ perceptions.
“They don’t seem to care about the midges or the rain anymore,” he chuckles. “They’re just glad it’s not too hot.”
Climate change is redrawing Europe’s summer tourism map.
Wildfires, droughts and record-breaking heatwaves are making summer months increasingly uncomfortable and unpredictable across southern Europe. By contrast, Scotland and other northern European nations are finding themselves perfectly positioned to offer a “coolcation” escape.
The early data backs this up. Visitor numbers to northern Europe were up 10%, external across April to June of this year, compared to the same period in 2025, according to the European Travel Commission (ETC), the body that represents Europe’s national tourism bodies.
The ETC said that northern Europe, which it classifies as Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, had “outperformed all other European subregions”.
Meanwhile, travel agency Trip.com found that from January to April of this year searches for cooler holiday destinations this summer had increased by 74%, external from the first four months of 2025, “as travellers seek to escape the heat, shifting their attention to places that offer more comfortable climates”.
And Awaze, the European holiday-rental group, says searches for “escape the heat” rose three-fold in the past three months, while hunts for “coolcation” were up more than four-fold. Within the UK, holiday rental website Cottages.com said that its Scottish portfolio has been the most viewed this summer.