Climatic preferences for beach tourism: an empirical study on Greek islands

Climate Preferences for Tourism: Perceptions Regarding Ideal and Unfavourable Conditions for Hiking in Spain

“…These results were similar to those obtained for various other types of tourism activities at different times of the year. For example: for summer tourism in general [34,70,81]; for sun and beach tourism [42,73,79]; city tourism [42,82]; or mountain tourism [42] (Table 3). When asked about the most unfavourable conditions for hiking, in line with the previous results, most of those interviewed opted for highly overcast skies (the "very cloudy" option was chosen by 61.9%) ( Table 2).…”

“…The third procedure involves conducting surveys to find out people's climate preferences for particular kinds of tourism (stated preferences). Numerous studies have followed this procedure [31][32][33][34]42,[74][75][76][77][78][79]. In this research we used this last technique, carrying out an "ex situ" survey, i.e., the surveys were not conducted "in situ" in places where people go hiking, but via the Internet, as in the papers by Dubois et al [31,33].…”

An Inter-Comparison of the Holiday Climate Index (HCI:Beach) and the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) to Explain Canadian Tourism Arrivals to the Caribbean

“…As shown in Figure 1, there is little annual variability in the TCI scores, with scores ranging from 32 to 63 (unfavorable to good). The lowest TCI scores occur in July and October (scoring [30][31][32][33][34][35], which is the result of both the higher weight placed on the thermal comfort sub-index, as well as the higher temperatures that occur during these months, which is not considered as optimum for sightseeing tourism. The highest scores occur during the peak tourism season from December to March (acceptable to good) when average daytime high temperatures are 27 to 29 • C. Importantly, unlike the HCI, not a single month in any of these three Caribbean destinations score as excellent using the TCI, which stands in direct contrast with the mean monthly arrivals data.…”

“…A central weakness of the TCI is the subjective rating and weighting scheme based on Mieczkowski's expert opinion. For example, the overemphasis on thermal comfort (50% of the index weight; 40% CID and 10% CIA) does not align with stated preference studies that have found precipitation to be of equal importance, particularly for a beach holiday [24,29,30,32]. The temperatures defined in the TCI as optimal for tourism also do not reflect the stated preferences of beach tourists [24,30,31].…”

“…Other indices include Air Equivalent-Effective Temperature (EET-air temperature, relative humidity and wind velocity) and Air Radiation Equivalent-Effective Temperature (REET-combination of air temperature, relative humidity, wind velocity, and solar radiation intensity). However, these bioclimatic indices do not reflect the specific needs and preferences of travelers, with tourists' preferences in specific markets like beach tourism found to be up to 18 • C warmer than the conventional bioclimatic indices [31,32]. Moreover, climate indices (TCI, PET, EET, REET), as currently used, do not consider factors that affect destination choice, such as (real and perceived) risks associated with the region's record of extreme conditions (e.g., tropical storms, heavy rain, or wind), nor do they account for consideration of localized adaptations that may change the climate resource and alter visitor comfort levels (e.g., higher air temperatures can be off-set by air-conditioning, building design, landscaping designed to create shade, increased availability of misters, and water-based recreational opportunities) [4].…”