خلاصة:
Climate is a natural resource that effects decision making for selection of destinations in tourism and ecotourism. The relationship between climate and tourism is a complex one. But application of a climate index provides an ideal approach to understanding this complexity and is a useful tool for the tourism industry. In this study, a modified version of Mieczkowski's (1985) Tourism Climate Index (TCI) for months was used for Kerman province to determine climate comfort ratings ranging from ideal to unfavorable. Data covering a network of 12 meteorological stations was used to
compute a TCI for the study region. Then index evaluations in each city were classified according to one of the six annual TCI distributions presented by Scott and Mcboyle (2001). Results of modeling showed bimodal-shoulder peaks in seven stations namely (Anar, Rafsanjan, Zarand, Sirjan, Shahre-Babak, Bam and Kerman); two stations namely (Baft and Lalehzar) had summer peak, and three cities (Shahdad, Kahnouj and Jiroft) had winter peak. TCI scores for all months in
the study stations were transferred into Geographic Information System to determine the most suitable areas and months for tourism activities in Kerman province.
ملخص الجهاز:
In this study, a modified version of Mieczkowski's (1985) Tourism Climate Index (TCI) for months was used for Kerman province to determine climate comfort ratings ranging from ideal to unfavorable.
TCI scores for all months in the study stations were transferred into Geographic Information System to determine the most suitable areas and months for tourism activities in Kerman province.
2000; Maddison 2001; Lise and Tol 2002; G´omez Mart´ın 2004; Hamilton and Lau 2005; Bigano et al.
This paper aimed to apply the TCI developed by Mieczkowski (1985) to make determinations of the most suitable months for areas for tourism and tourist activities in Kerman province-southeastern Iran.
Mieczkowski’s Tourism climate index The TCI developed by Mieczkowski (1985) was based on previous research related to climate classification for tourism and recreation (Crowe, 1976) and theoretical considerations from the biometeorological literature related to human comfort, with particular reference to tourism activities (Danilova 1973, Kandror et al.
The city of Baft (western Kerman) was determined as having the most suitable months for tourism activities in the TCI descriptive categories ‘excellent’ (80<TCI<90) and ‘ideal’ (90<TCI<100) climatic conditions were from April to October (Figure 6, b).
Cities with bi-modal shoulder peak on the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) distribution in Kerman province (southeastern Iran) Fig. 4.
Cities with summer peak on the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) distribution in Kerman province (southeastern Iran) (View the image of this page) Fig. 5.
Cities with winter peak on the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) distribution in Kerman province (southeastern Iran) 4.
Geographical distribution of Tourism Climate Index (TCI) scores in different months for Kerman province, southeastern Iran Fig. 8.