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Implications of climate and outdoor thermal comfort on tourism: the case of Italy

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Abstract

Whether a journey is pleasant or not usually depends on the climatic conditions which permit to perform outdoor activities. The perception of climatic conditions, determined by physiological and psychological factors, can vary according to different adaptation phenomena related to the person involved and the weather conditions of the place where they live. Studying the bioclimatology of a country characterized by a high flux of tourism, as e.g. Italy, can provide some important information about where and when is it better to visit a place. Some differences have to be specified though, like the local tourism, which is used to that type of climate, and international tourism, which is formed by people coming from countries with different types of climates. Therefore this paper examined the climatic conditions and outdoor thermal comfort through the Mediterranean Outdoor Comfort Index (MOCI) for local tourism and through the predicted mean vote (PMV) for international tourism. The cities examined were three (Venice, Rome and Palermo located in the North, Centre and South of Italy, respectively), where average information were collected every week for an entire year. Finally, a map of the entire Italian territory reporting the seasonal average values of these indexes was also reported.

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Acknowledgements

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. We are grateful to the Italian Air Force for their precious collaboration and support, providing our Department with the meteorological data which enabled the realization of this study. In particular, we want to thank the General Staff CSA—Meteorology Unit (represented by L. Col. Carmine Ranaldo and 1° Marshall David Palella) and COMET (represented by Col. AArnn Nav. Stefano Bianca and Marshall Andrea Gurrieri). We would like to extend warm thanks to the Major Andrea Gardon for his helpfulness. A special thanks to Mrs. Flavia Franco for the help she provided in the preparation of this paper.

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  1. DIAEE—Area Fisica Tecnica, Facoltà di Ingegneria Civile ed Industriale, Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184, Rome, Italy

    Ferdinando Salata, Iacopo Golasi, Riccardo Proietti & Andrea de Lieto Vollaro

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  1. Ferdinando Salata
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Salata, F., Golasi, I., Proietti, R. et al. Implications of climate and outdoor thermal comfort on tourism: the case of Italy. Int J Biometeorol 61, 2229–2244 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-017-1430-1

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