The role of TCI and TCCI indexes in regional tourism planning

Podunavlje region in Serbia comprises 16.6% of the territory and 38.9% of the total population of the country. Due to its attractive natural values, cultural-historical monuments, ethnographic features, etc., Serbian Podunavlje has favorable conditions for the development of excursion, nautical, stationary, event, youth, rural, hunting, transit, and other kinds of tourism. Since the climate as a tourism resource and the factor of tourist migrations in the observed area has not been analyzed yet, the aim of this paper is the tourism valorization of the significance of climate using the two tourism climatic indexes: tourism climate index (TCI) and tourism climate comfort index (TCCI). To achieve it, the climate elements were first analyzed at five meteorological stations in Serbian Podunavlje: Sombor, Novi Sad, Belgrade, Veliko Gradište, and Negotin for the period 1990–2010. Then the periods favorable for tourism activities were determined according to the mentioned indexes at the given stations. The research results show that summer is certainly the most favorable season for tourism activities in the observed area since the maximum TCI values were recorded during summer, and the minimum ones during winter at all the stations. Regarding the TCCI, the most optimal values of this index were recorded in September and May. These results can further serve the tourism organizations in the municipalities in Serbian Podunavlje when considering the construction of the tourism infrastructure, marketing activities, and further affirmation of the resources for the purpose of sustainable development of tourism.

Confort climático en la Argentina: un recurso intangible para el turismo

La relación entre clima y turismo tiene implicancias en todas las escalas territoriales. No obstante, la sensibilidad climática del turismo varía según la modalidad y el tipo de actividad. Por ello, desde la perspectiva del confort, las características climáticas del destino son un recurso importante para la planificación. El presente trabajo evalúa el confort climático de la Argentina como recurso intangible para el turismo. El análisis se funda en el modelado espacial del Tourism Climate Index (TCI), calculado para 69 estaciones meteorológicas distribuidas uniformemente en el país. El TCI medio anual en la Argentina es de 73 puntos, indicando condiciones de confort climático-turístico “muy buenas”. Sin embargo, el comportamiento espacial del índice permite diferenciar una banda diagonal de máxima y dos regiones espejo definidas por una disminución de los puntajes medios hacia el NE y el SO. Esto se atribuye a la distribución espacial de los subíndices que constituyen el TCI. El confort térmico diario y la velocidad del viento influyen negativamente en Patagonia, mientras que en Litoral contrapesan los altos montos de precipitación. Estos hallazgos evidencian la importancia e interés de considerar al clima como un recurso estratégico en la planificación turística nacional.

Evaluation of the Tourism Climate Index in the Canary Islands

In this study, we performed a diagnostic and evolutive analysis of the bioclimatology of the Canary Islands, an Atlantic archipelago where the climate itself is a main feature promoting tourism. Among all the tourist-climate indices described in the literature, we evaluated the most widely used, which is the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) proposed by Mieczkowski (1985). Monthly mean TCI time series were calculated using meteorological data from the Spanish State Meteorological Agency database and the European Climate Assessment and Dataset. Our results show TCI values greater than 50 during almost every month in the period 1950–2018, with mean values over the entire time series between 70 and 80. According to the TCI classification scheme, these values correspond to a very good thermal comfort along all of the period. Our results also point to spring as the season with the best TCI, with maximum values around 80 for this index in April—excellent according to the TCI classification. However, we did not find a correlation between inbound arrivals and the TCI index, which might point to a lack of information available to tourists. This opens an opportunity for policymakers and tour operators to better publicize the best seasons for holidays in the islands.

Confort climático y turismo. Estudio aplicado a diferentes niveles de resolución temporal en Puerto Iguazú, Argentina

El clima es un factor que condiciona las prácticas turístico-recreativas en espacios al aire libre. El bienestar y confort térmico constituyen exigencias del visitante susceptibles de evaluarse mediante la faceta térmica del clima. Este trabajo se aplica a Puerto Iguazú, un destino de clima subtropical húmedo. El mismo está estructurado con base en dos objetivos, por un lado, comparar tres índices bioclimáticos: Complejo Termo-anemométrico (P), Complejo Termo-higrométrico (THI) y Humidex (H), versus un índice climático-turístico: Tourism Climate Index (TCI) a fin de establecer cuál ofrece un mejor ajuste a la realidad estudiada. Por otro, a fin de generar información con mayor grado de detalle, se busca conocer el comportamiento en resolución horaria del P y H. El cálculo de los índices a nivel mensual (P, THI, H y TCI) se realizó con base en las estadísticas climatológicas de la estación Iguazú Aero para el período 1981-2010, proporcionadas por el Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. Los índices P y H en resolución horaria se calcularon a partir de datos meteorológicos de la misma estación para el período 2001-2010, obtenidos del sitio Meteomanz.com. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que la componente termo-higrométrica es la de mayor peso en el destino analizado, lo cual es coherente con sus características climáticas. La aplicación de los índices permitió determinar los momentos del año y horas del día más benignas para la realización de prácticas turístico-recreativas al aire libre.

Assessment climate resource of Con Dao island (Vietnam) by using the tourism climate index

This article assesses climatic conditions for tourism by using Tourism Climate Index - TCI, published by Mieczkowsk (1985). This is an experimental synthetic climatic index that evaluates simultaneously the influence of 7 climatic elements as maximum average temperature (oC), minimum average humidity (%), average temperature (oC), average humidity (%), the number of sunny hours, windy speed of Con Dao island. The results of TCI within 12 months in Con Dao island compare to “Classification of advantageous levels of climate for tourism” of TCI (Mieczkowsk, 1985) which shows the advantages of Con Dao for relaxation tourism all year round. The period from December to April is the most favourable time for tourism activities in Con Dao because the TCI index reaches from Good to Very good, while the suitable time is from May to November, due to rainfall and high speed of wind during the rainy season.

Estimation of the spatial climate comfort distribution using tourism climate index (TCI) and inverse distance weighting (IDW) (case study: Fars Province, Iran)

This article was conducted to perform a temporal and spatial analysis in order to identify suitable climatic regions for tourism. We investigated tourism climate conditions in Fars province from 2006 to 2016 using tourism climate index (TCI). Also, modified inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation is applied to generate the optimal spatial pattern of the TCI distribution. The relationship between the interpolation accuracy and a critical IDW parameter, called power value (β), was evaluated for optimization. The results revealed that during four months of May, April, October, and November, 70–83% of cities in Fars province show excellent and ideal climatic comfort. In the four months of July, December, January, and March, about 45–54% of Fars province provide good and very good conditions for tourism activities. The spatial distribution of TCI also shows that the cities in the northern part generally have the most desirable conditions during the hot season, while the southern cities of Fars province are more suitable for tourism during the cold season. Also, analysis of optimization steps demonstrated that power value (β) affects interpolation accuracy. As our study suggests, using the optimal power values (β) of 1 and 2 can lead to optimal spatial interpolation of the TCI distribution. Overall, we found IDW and TCI as reliable tools for assessing bioclimatic comfort conditions, considering β-value as an influential factor that should be evaluated to achieve optimal interpolation results.

Tourism climate conditions in the Western Sudetes (Poland) in relation to UTCI

The region of Western Sudetes is one of the most popular tourist areas in Poland. Simultaneously, it is also characterized by significant variability in terms of climate conditions. Therefore, the main goal of the analysis was to evaluate variability in heat stress frequency according to UTCI and examine how it corresponds to the results of the tourism-climate index (WSI). The results for both indices, for 1971-2015 data, showed significant differences between the summit and the lower located mountain zones. Analysis on multiannual trends of UTCI classes showed significant increase in the frequency of thermoneutral conditions and decreasing tendency for cold stress categories.