Adaptation strain index for tourists traveling from central and northern Europe to the Mediterranean

Abstract

− One of the principal features of climate is its spatial variability. Long distance travels are an essential part of life in contemporary societies. in 2012 tourism arri vals reached 1 billion people at the global scale. in a short time one can move to e xtremely different climatic conditions and one's organism is under great pressure of a tmospheric stimuli which can be very different from those experienced at home. spatial differences in climate stimuli need various adaptation strategies in humans. the paper considers adap ta tion strain in tourists from seven central and northern european cities travelling to the Mediterranean regions of Barcelona, rome and athens for the period 1991-2000. the adap tation strain index (ASI) was applied for this purpose. seasonal and spatial patterns of bioclimatic contrasts are considered. summer was the season with greatest spatially differen tiated adaptation strain, but in winter the need for adaptation was the highest.Keywords: Bioclimate, adaptation strain index (asi), tourism, europe, Mediterranean. resumo -índice de adaptação cliMática eM turiStaS ViaJando do centro e do norte da europa para o Mediterrâneo. Uma das principais características do clima é a sua variabilidade espacial. as viagens de longo curso, para turismo de lazer ou de trabalho, são uma característica da sociedade contemporânea. em 2012, as "chegadas" atingiram mil milhões a nível mundial. num curto espaço de tempo, o organismo humano pode ficar submetido a condições climáticas muito diversas das habituais, o que exige diversas estratégias de adaptação. estuda-se, neste artigo, a tensão a que ficam sujeitos os turistas que se deslocam de sete locais da europa Central e do norte em direc ção a três cidades no Mediterrâneos: atenas, Barcelona e roma, no período 1999-2000. Utiliza-se, para este propó sito, o Adaptation Strain Index (ASI). na análise,

Weather suitability for outdoor tourism in three European regions in first decades of the twenty-first century

“…The Acclimatization Thermal Strain Index (ATSI) of de Freitas and Grigorieva (2009) is based on heat loss by respiration. Błażejczyk and Vinogradova (2014) proposed the Adaptation Strain Index (ASI) which includes three measures of adaptation processes of an organism to different ambient conditions: water loss, insulation predicted and Universal Thermal Climate Index.…”

“…Błażejczyk and Matzarakis (2008) used PST, WSI and CTIS to evaluate climate suitability of Helsinki, Athens, Paris and Cracow. Błażejczyk and Vinogradova (2014) studied the adaptation strain of tourists travelling from central and northern Europe to the Mediteranean. Several papers comparing bioclimatic conditions in various sites in Europe were also published by Błażejczyk and collaborators Błażejczyk et al 2015).…”

Biothermal contrasts while travelling in or between Poland and Bulgaria

“…The study goes on to consider travel between these points on the routes presented in Figure 2. The evaluation of the biothermal contrasts experienced by tourists entailed application of the Adaptation Strain Index (ASI, no dimension), which was developed by Błażejczyk and Vinogradova (2014) as a modification of the Bioclimatic Contrast Index (Błażejczyk 2011). The index illustrates the adaptation strain tourists can be subject to as they reach a chosen destination.…”

“…Taking into consideration the limitations of the indices in question, Błażejczyk and Vinogradova (2014) proposed the new index that has been applied in the research presented here, with a view to assessing the adaptation strain incurred as travel takes place between certain sites in Poland and Bulgaria.…”

UTCI applications in practice (methodological questions)

“…Biothermal contrasts can also be the basis for large-area research, when tourism changes the climatic conditions quickly and drastically. The practical purpose of such research is to propose recommendations on how to prepare for a trip to a different climate zone (Błażejczyk & Vinogradova, 2014).…”