School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Int J Biometeorol. 2024 Sep;68(9):1717-1728. doi: 10.1007/s00484-024-02700-x. Epub 2024 May 14.
Climate is a key resource for tourists and tourism providers. Varied approaches to quantifying climate resources for tourism have been developed in the last 40 years, computing indices from a range of meteorological variables to measure the comparative climatic suitability of different destinations through time. This study provides the first application of a tourism climate index in the tropical southwest Indian Ocean, applying the recently developed Holiday Climate Index (HCI) for Réunion Island. The suitability of this index is evaluated for the case of this French department, with a particular focus on air conditioning availability in tourism accommodation establishments as this index excludes night-time thermal comfort. Both iterations of the HCI (HCI and HCI) are computed with meteorological data from Roland Garros Airport for the period 1991-2020, exploring monthly, annual, and seasonal climatic suitability. Mean monthly HCI scores reveal considerable seasonality in climatic suitability for tourism on the island with scores ranging from 89.3 ('excellent') to 36.9 ('marginal') for the HCI and 85.0 ('excellent') to 27.5 ('unacceptable') for the HCI, with more favourable scores calculated for July and August, displaying a clear austral winter peak seasonal classification. Over the 30-year period, there is no statically significant change in mean annual climatic suitability, and at a monthly scale, only one month of the year for each index displays statistically significant trends. These results are important in informing tourism strategies for the island to maximise visitor satisfaction through targeting advertising more deliberately for peak touristic climate suitability during the winter months.
气候是游客和旅游供应商的关键资源。在过去的 40 年中，已经开发出了多种量化旅游气候资源的方法，从一系列气象变量中计算指数，以衡量不同目的地随时间的相对气候适宜性。本研究首次在印度洋西南部热带地区应用旅游气候指数，应用最近开发的留尼汪岛假日气候指数（HCI）。该指数在法属留尼汪岛的适用性进行了评估，特别关注旅游住宿设施中空调的可用性，因为该指数不包括夜间热舒适度。使用罗兰加洛斯机场 1991-2020 年的气象数据计算了 HCI 的两个迭代（HCI 和 HCI），探索了月度、年度和季节性气候适宜性。平均每月 HCI 得分揭示了岛上旅游气候适宜性的季节性差异很大，HCI 得分范围从 89.3（“优秀”）到 36.9（“边际”），HCI 得分范围从 85.0（“优秀”）到 27.5（“不可接受”），7 月和 8 月的得分更有利，显示出明显的澳式冬季高峰季节性分类。在 30 年期间，平均年气候适宜性没有统计学上的显著变化，在每月尺度上，每个指数只有一个月显示出统计学上的显著趋势。这些结果对于为该岛制定旅游战略非常重要，通过在冬季更有针对性地针对高峰旅游气候适宜性进行广告宣传，最大限度地提高游客满意度。
