Why is the content of this map important?
Climate and weather patterns are essential factors for summer tourism activities. Changes in temperature, precipitation and other climate variables will affect the popularity of summer tourism destinations. It is important to know how +2 and +3 degrees may affect the summer tourism in the future.
Which sectors are affected by this result?
The results refer to climate change effects on tourism from June to August, thus directly effecting the summer tourism sector. Reader are encouraged to see the respective results about the May to October that consist the entire summer tourism season for Europe. TCI May to October
What is shown on the maps?
This map shows the climate favourability for summer tourism through Tourism Climate Index (TCI). This index is composed of several climatic parameters such as temperature, sunshine duration, wind and others. TCI ranges between 0 and 100, with the optimal to be 90 to 100 (Table 1). In most European regions, climate favourability for summer tourism activities is expected to increase under the warmer 2 and 3 degrees worlds. However, some regions will become warmer than the optimal, with their climate favourability reducing. Southern parts of Spain and Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus are the most negatively affected regions in Europe. Northern Spain and France are among the most positively affected. The changes become even more pronounced in the +3 degrees warming.
Details and further information:
The TCI is a summary of ratings of five human comfort indices related to sightseeing tourism. TCI is favored as an index because it comprises one of the most comprehensive metrics that integrates the three essential facets of climate that are relevant to tourism. These facets are comprised of: thermal comfort, physical aspects such as rain and wind, and the aesthetical facet of sunshine/cloudiness. At the same time it makes use of climate variables that are commonly available from weather stations or climate models.
Kostas Seiradakis
Technical University of Crete (TUC), Greece