Tourism Calendar of Fars Province

Certainly, tourism is an important factor in the development of countries. Growth of this section is faster than that of the global trade in wealth production. Climate, as a geographical factor forming geographical space, can influence tourism. On the other hand, unpleasant climatic conditions have seriously negative effects on tourism. Most tourists, when choosing the destinations, take climatic conditions into consideration. On the other hand, unfavorable climatic conditions can reduce the positive aspects of a regional tourist attraction, imposing a considerably adverse impact on tourism. In this paper, this issue was investigated in the Iranian province of Fars, one of the most important tourist destinations because of its cultural attractions. The main purpose of this research was identifying appropriate conditions and suggesting a tourism temporal calendar that can improve quality and quantity of services offered to the tourists. For this purpose, a method was employed to calculate Man Ray physiological equivalent temperature (PET) and mean survey forecast (PMV) so that tourism and climate could be evaluated in the province. Another objective of this paper was to identify place and time conditions of tourism in the province to propose a calendar. Hopefully, this would lead to improving the quality of tourism services offered in the province.
Material and In this research, we used meteorological data in synoptic and climatologic stations at a period extending from 1990 to 2005. Meteorological indices included: temperature, humidity, wind speed, vapor pressure and cloudy cover. Personal variables were: stature, weight, age, coverage and thermal value based on human activity. Assessment Method used for measuring climate comfort for tourism was based on the physiological equivalent temperature index and the average of polls predicted. The index combines indicators of temperature, body's physiological balance with the environment, based on the known efficiency evaluation of climate comfort and tourism. However, one of the most widely accepted and commonly used physiological parameters of temperature is heat index, which is the physiological equivalent of the energy balance equation and is derived from human’s body. In the first step, climatic comfort method assessment was used to calculate Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) and Predicted Mean Vote (PMV). Then comfort isopleths were drawn based on PMV and PET index. PMV and PET showed similar results, but we drew PET method isopleths maps because PET method indicated temporal and spatial bio-climatic conditions much better than PMV and presented bioclimatic zone more clearly than PMV.
Drawing PET isopleths curves for different stations in all months showed temporal and spatial comfort conditions in Fars province. Investigations showed that in Abade, Eghlid, Bavanat and Neirise stations, severe cold tension was dominant in January, February and March. On the other hand, In Lar, Darab, Lamerd and Jahrom, severe hot tension was dominant in June, July and August. In warm regions of province, there were comfort conditions in February–March in spring and November-December in autumn. In the cool regions of province, there were comfortable conditions in February-June and September-October. In fact, appropriate climatic conditions were confirmed in 9 months, thereby showing excellent qualification. Results, which were based on regionalization comfort maps, showed that winter provided favorable tourism conditions in the southern area of Fars province.
Planning for tourism development needs to consider temporal and spatial analysis. This work employed comfort isopleths maps. Therefore, drawing the maps for each of the spatial distribution of tourism can help identify the vulnerable areas. The analysis of maps showed that at 8.8 percent of annual times, severe conditions were dominant. Hence, it can be concluded that heat stress limits province's tourism much more than cold stress. At 13.8 percent of annual times, climatic comfort was dominant. If low heat and cold were added to it, a total 45.3 percent could be appropriate for tourism. However, this province, in 45.3% of time, with a little warm, cool and comfortable weather can be a great potential for tourism. My assessment showed that isopleths diagram were good tools for determining comfort condition.Based on these findings, determination of the appropriate time for tourism in the province, due to the intense heat conflict in the north and south, is different. But, in all zones of the province, April and November are the best months for tourists.