Evaluating the Tourist Climate Comfortable Period of China in a Changing Climate

Abstract

The evaluation of climate comfort for tourism can provide information for tourists selecting destinations and tourism operators. Understanding how climate conditions for tourism evolve is increasingly important for strategic tourism planning, particularly in rapidly developing tourism markets like China in a changing climate. Multidimensional climate indices are needed to evaluate climate for tourism, and previous studies in China have used the much criticized “climate index” with low resolution climate data. This study uses the Holiday Climate Index (HCI) and daily data from 775 weather stations to examine interregional differences in the tourist climate comfortable period (TCCP) across China and summarizes the spatiotemporal evolution of TCCP from 1981 to 2010 in a changing climate. Overall, most areas in China have an “excellent” climate for tourism, such that tourists may visit anytime with many choices available. The TCCP in most regions shows an increasing trend, and China benefits more from positive effects of climate change in climatic conditions for tourism, especially in spring and autumn. These results can provide some scientific evidence for understanding human settlement environmental constructions and further contribute in improving local or regional resilience responding to global climate change.

Spatio-Temporal Evolution and Prediction of Tourism Comprehensive Climate Comfort in Henan Province, China

“…This may be caused by the large latitude difference between the two study areas. At the same time, our results and the seasonal changes of China's tourism comfort index (TCI) from 1981 to 2010, and the tourism climate comfort period (TCCP) in Henan Province, showed a similar pattern of a high comfort level in spring and autumn and low comfort level in summer and winter [36,52].…”

“…The research results only assessed the climate comfort from April to September [42], which limited tourists' choice of other months. They also did not predict the future development trends, and could not provide a scientific basis for future tourism planning [36,43].…”

“…In China, the research on climate comfort has developed rapidly, including the evaluation and analysis of the whole country [36], provinces [30], and at the city scale [9], as well as research on scenic spots [37]. For the research on climate comfort, a few studies have used the THI, WEI, and ICL, but never all three in the same study.…”

Impact of Climate Variability on Climate Beach-Based Tourism Aptitude: A Case Study in the Atlantic Coast of SW Europe

“…For example, the mid-latitude region of USA experienced the largest improvement from 1981 to 2019, while just a moderate improvement or even a decline was observed in the tropical and arid climate regions [39]. A significant lengthening of the annual average tourist climate comfortable period in mainland China was also found for the 1981-2010 period [40]. On the other side, trends of TCI scores did not indicate a significant change for the majority of South Africa [41], as well as in the Canary Islands [42], without any significant trend to worsening due to increased temperatures in both subtropical destinations.…”

“…The HCI: Beach has been applied to different destinations and climatic settings, to characterize both current and future conditions [34][35][36]. However, to date, the HCI: Beach index has not been used to assess its long-term variability or its links with atmospheric circulation, unlike other bioclimatic indices [37][38][39][40][41][42]. Characterizing the climate beach-based tourism aptitude on a regional-scale basis, as observed in the instrumental record, is a necessary initial step toward making meaningful assessments of the accuracy of regional climate predictions.…”