Weather Preferences for Urban Tourism: An Empirical Study in the Greek Capital of Athens, Greece

Several climate indices have been developed to analyze the relationship between climatic variables and tourist comfort at different destinations, although, none of the indices applied so far in cities have been informed by empirical data collected exclusively at urban tourist destinations. The prese...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmosphere 2022-02, Vol.13 (2), p.282
Main Authors: Kapetanakis, Dimitrios, Georgopoulou, Elena, Mirasgedis, Sevastianos, Sarafidis, Yannis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
climate
Climate adaptation
Climate change
Climate change adaptation
Climatic conditions
Climatic indexes
Empirical analysis
empirical survey
Museums
Outdoor activities
Physiology
Polls & surveys
Questionnaires
Surveying
Tourism
tourist comfort indices
Tourists
Travel
Trends
Urban areas
Urban climates
urban tourism
Weather effects on tourism
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Summary:Several climate indices have been developed to analyze the relationship between climatic variables and tourist comfort at different destinations, although, none of the indices applied so far in cities have been informed by empirical data collected exclusively at urban tourist destinations. The present paper aims to cover this gap by developing an “Urban Climate Comfort Index” (UCCI) that integrates critical climate variables for urban tourism and is informed by empirical data from an in-situ survey conducted in southern Europe, namely, in close proximity to the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. The survey provided input on the ideal and unacceptable climatic conditions as perceived by urban tourists and on the relevant weight of the selected climatic parameters. Tourist preferences were then translated into a numerical scale by assigning utility scores of 0% and 100% to the “unacceptable” and “ideal” values while using a linear change for the intermediate values. Hence, a best-fitting utility function for each climatic variable was created, and all utility functions were then aggregated through their relative weights to form the UCCI index. The new index can be applied to other similar urban tourist destinations and assist impact assessment studies and tourism management measures, including climate change adaptation.
ISSN:2073-4433
2073-4433
DOI:10.3390/atmos13020282