Abstract
As a pivotal section of the Silk Road in northwest China, the Hexi Corridor is a popular tourist destination. In this study, the tourism climate conditions in this region were discussed using the Physiologically Equivalent Temperature (PET) and the Climate-Tourism/Transfer-information-Scheme (CTIS) from 1980 to 2012. Overall, cold or cool stress was prevalent in the area, and the optimal travel period was from May to September. With global warming, the annual numbers of cumulative days with relatively cold conditions decreased, and the annual numbers of cumulative days with comfortable and relatively hot conditions increased. Two typical stations, Wushaoling and Dunhuang, were compared and analysed for their tourism climate information according to the frequency of PET and CTIS conditions, respectively. In addition, regional variations in the tourism climate conditions based on geographic information systems (GIS) were investigated during the optimal travel period.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Prof. Matzarakis for providing the programs RayMan and CTIS programs. In addition, this study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 41461003).
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Zhang, F., Zhang, M., Wang, S. et al. Evaluation of the tourism climate in the Hexi Corridor of northwest China’s Gansu Province during 1980–2012. Theor Appl Climatol 129, 901–912 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1814-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1814-x