Astrotourism and Night Sky Brightness Forecast: First Probabilistic Model Approach

Abstract

Celestial tourism, also known as astrotourism, astronomical tourism or, less frequently, star tourism, refers to people’s interest in visiting places where celestial phenomena can be clearly observed. Stars, skygazing, meteor showers or comets, among other phenomena, arouse people’s interest, however, good night sky conditions are required to observe such phenomena. From an environmental point of view, several organisations have surfaced in defence of the protection of dark night skies against light pollution, while from an economic point of view; the idea also opens new possibilities for development in associated areas. The quality of dark skies for celestial tourism can be measured by night sky brightness (NSB), which is used to quantify the visual perception of the sky, including several light sources at a specific point on earth. The aim of this research is to model the nocturnal sky brightness by training and testing a probabilistic model using real NSB data. ARIMA and artificial neural network models have been applied to open NSB data provided by the Globe at Night international programme, with the results of this first model approach being promising and opening up new possibilities for astrotourism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, probabilistic models have not been applied to NSB forecasting.

Astrotourism research landscape: a bibliometric analysis

“…Finally, the declining or emerging themes are classified into three clusters. The first, night sky brightness, contains two articles that study the potential of astrotourism destinations through measurements of sky luminosity (C- Sánchez et al, 2019;Kanianska et al, 2020). The second cluster, stargazing tourism, also has two publications that examine the behavior and preferences (Fernández-Hernández et al, 2022;Li, 2021) of stargazing tourism.…”

Astrotourism–Exceeding Limits of the Earth and Tourism Definitions?

“…Regarding the travelling motivated by astronomical observations, the level of light pollution is not only monitored [97] and predicted (e.g., Reference [98]) as a condition for astrotourism, but a new tourist attraction has also emerged-a destination of dark sky (e.g., dark-sky tourism in national parks in the USA on the Colorado Plateau, Reference [99]). The most visible result of the International Dark-Sky Association initiative called "the International Dark Sky Communities Program" is an existence of more than 120 certified sites, which declare protecting their territories against light pollution through public education and responsible lighting policies [100].…”

Astrotourism: A Literature Review and Framework for Future Research

“…As a result, the movement in favour of night sky protection and enhancement of astrotourism has grown, especially in North America and Europe. This Rural areas are also configured as reservoirs of unspoilt skies, offering unique opportunities for tourists and local communities (Cooper et al, 2018;C-Sánchez et al, 2019) who see pollution as a threat to tourism and contemplation of celestial phenomena (Labuda, 2015;Labuda et al, 2015). These attitudes can entail difficulties for development projects and yet, concurrently, provide incentives for regional cooperation and partnerships, according to Labuda et al (2016).…”

“…291-331 ISSN 2174-548Xrecognised natural spaces and areas in which the night sky is perceived as a scarce, precious and protected resource. This movement has fostered people's rediscovery of starry skies(C-Sánchez et al, 2019).…”