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Future climate resources for tourism in Europe based on the daily Tourism Climatic Index

Perch-Nielsen, Sabine ; Amelung, Bas ; Knutti, Reto

In: Climatic Change, 2010, vol. 103, no. 3-4, p. 363-381

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    Titre
    • Future climate resources for tourism in Europe based on the daily Tourism Climatic Index
    Auteur
    • Perch-Nielsen, Sabine. Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    • Amelung, Bas. International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS), Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
    • Knutti, Reto. Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
    Type de document
    • Postprint
    Classification
    • Sciences de la terre
    Identifiant OAI-PMH
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:311488
    Summary
    Climate is an important resource for many types of tourism. One of several metrics for the suitability of climate for sightseeing is Mieczkowski's "Tourism Climatic Index” (TCI), which summarizes and combines seven climate variables. By means of the TCI, we analyse the present climate resources for tourism in Europe and projected changes under future climate change. We use daily data from five regional climate models and compare the reference period 1961-1990 to the A2 scenario in 2071-2100. A comparison of the TCI based on reanalysis data and model simulations for the reference period shows that current regional climate models capture the important climatic patterns. Currently, climate resources are best in Southern Europe and deteriorate with increasing latitude and altitude. With climate change the latitudinal band of favourable climate is projected to shift northward improving climate resources in Northern and Central Europe in most seasons. Southern Europe's suitability for sightseeing tourism drops strikingly in the summer holiday months but is partially compensated by considerable improvements between October and April