Impact of climate change on Tibet tourism based on tourism climate index

Abstract

Climate change is an important factor affecting the sustainable development of tourist destinations. Based on the monthly observation data of the main meteorological stations on the ground in Tibet from 1960 to 2015, this paper constructs a tourism climate index model. This index is used to quantitatively evaluate the tourism climate changes in Tibet, and investigate the impact of climate change on tourism. The results show that from 1960 to 2015, the temperature in Tibet increased by 1.35°C, and the tourism climate index changed significantly, especially in the regions of Changtang, Ngari and Kunlun Mountain. The fluctuation of temperature-humidity index, wind-chill index and index of clothing of these areas was larger than that of other regions. The changes of each index in different months are different, where spring observes larger changes while summer observes smaller changes. The tourism climate index in northwestern Tibet has increased, and the climate comfort period is expanding. In southeastern Tibet, the comfort level has declined and the comfort level in the central part has been slowly increasing. The comfort index in the southeastern part of Tibet has gradually declined, and the comfort index in central Tibet has slowly increased. According to the comprehensive assessment method including temperature and humidity index, wind-chill index, index of clothing and altitude adaptability index, the types of tourism climate index in Tibet can be divided into reduced, low-speed growth, medium-speed growth and rapid growth. Different regions should adopt alternative tourism products, strengthen energy conservation and emission reduction technology applications and green infrastructure construction, and appropriately control the scale of tourism activities so as to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change on tourist destinations.

A Long-Term Ecological Vulnerability Analysis of the Tibetan Region of Natural Conditions and Ecological Protection Programs

“…Studies in Europe and coastal areas have mainly focused on the sensitivity of the ecosystem and its response to climate change and pattern change over time [25][26][27][28][29][30], which measure ecosystem tolerance and vegetation response predictions to climate anomalies. In mainland areas, research on ecological vulnerability is more concentrated on land use patterns [31][32][33], desertification soil problems [24,[34][35][36], and human disturbances [37][38][39][40][41]. Typically, vulnerable zones with different topological characteristics are studied [38][39][40] to determine the determinants of vulnerability.…”

Experimental study on the influence of virtual tourism spatial situation on the tourists’ temperature comfort in the context of metaverse

“…Temperature comfort is an important part of current climate comfort research, and research on temperature comfort plays an important role in helping tourists select travel destinations and make travel decisions ( Perch-Nielsen et al, 2010 ). Tourism temperature comfort not only affects the length of the tourism comfort period and the choice of tourist destinations but also affects the tourism activities ways and the function of tourism resources ( Abed and Matzarakis, 2018 ; Zhong et al, 2019 ). Previous studies have found that temperature comfort is not only influenced by objective environmental factors, but the psychological adaption is also an important factor (such as knowledge, experience, and memory) is also an important factor in tourists’ temperature comfort ( Lu et al, 2016 ).…”

Future Holiday Climate Index (HCI) Performance of Urban and Beach Destinations in the Mediterranean

“…Therefore, Mieczkowski developed the first index for the relationship between tourism and climate, the Tourism Climate Index (TCI), to assess the favorable and unfavorable climatic conditions according to the needs of visitors. Since its development, the TCI has been used extensively as a research tool for many regions and countries in the world, such as Europe [46][47][48], the Mediterranean [49], South Africa [50,51], Algeria [52], Australia [53], China [3,[54][55][56][57], Egypt [58], Georgia [59], Hungary [60], Iran [61][62][63][64][65], Turkey [66]. TCI merges seven climatic variables in five additive sub-indices.…”

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