Climate and tourism

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Climate and tourism

• November 12, 2009

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Climate as a tourism resource(Gómez-Martín 2005)

• Climate is a free resource
• Climate must be enjoyed in situ
• Climate varies in space and time
• Climate can be hazardous
• Climate perception varies by the individual
• Climate is not a renewable, nondegradable
  resource

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Users of climate information

• Operator
• Planner
• Individual

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Uses of climate data (after deFreitas 2003)

• Operational decision-making
• Risk Assessment
• Marketing
• Investment
• Siting
• Design
• Weather derivatives

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Climate and tourism

• Determining factors for location of tourist
  activity
• Space
• Environment
• Climate as limiting factor
• E.g. beach resort ski resort spa
• Climate as preferential factor

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Climate data representation

• Events
• Likelihood of occurrence of rain, snow, cold, etc
• Averages
• e.g.
• June days with precip Akron Miami
• Snowfall Cleveland Denver
• Sept. Hi Temp Fresno Ft Myers
• What is average anyway?

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Risk vs. appeal (from deFreitas 2003)
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Tourism Climate Index (TCI)Mieczkowski (1985)
table from McBoyle (2006)
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Climate distributionsMcBoyle (2006)
e.g. Phoenix
e.g. Los Angeles e.g. Cleveland e.g. New
Orleans
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Climate Index for Tourism (CIT) deFreitas et al.
(2008)

• CIT f (A,T) P
• A aesthetic
• T thermal
• P physical

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Climate Tourism Information SchemeZaninovic and
Matzarakis 2009
3pm
7am
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Real-time informationphotos from Scott and
Lemieux 2009

• Private Meteorologists are prime forecasters for
  niche tourism

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Environmental preferenceScott et al. 2007
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Utilization of climate resources over time

• Heliotropism
• Snow
• Wind
• Ex. Tárifa, Spain (Gómez Martín 2005)

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Year-to-year variabilityScott and Lemieux 2009
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HeadlinesScott and Lemieux 2009
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Correlations with tourist activity

• Temperature, rainfall, sunshine correlate with
  travel plans
• In current year
• From previous year
• Correlation with visitor satisfaction

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The climate-tourism relationshipScott and
Lemieux 2009
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Time scales of climate data useScott and Lemieux
2009
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Climate change and tourismWTO 2008
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Climate change and tourismScott et al. 2006

• Economic threat

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Tourism and climate changeWTO 2008