Applying Climate Indices in Determining Kerman Province's Potential Tourism Areas

In many countries, climate is a valuable asset for the tourist, since the climate of the destination is one of the information tourists need, and tourists plan their itinerary according to the destination's desired climate. Climate is a major factor in the development of the tourism industry, and, considering the importance of the influence of climate factors on tourism planning, determining the indicators of tourism comfort, tourism climate and physiologically equivalent temperature is very important. In the present study, the Kerman province has been zoned monthly using tourism climate indices and physiological equivalent temperature. For this purpose, the indicators were calculated for 12 synoptic stations within the Kerman province during the statistical period of 2003 to 2013. The calculated station results were generalized to the study area in the GIS environment using Inverse Distance Interpolation method. The results of the Tourism Climate Index (TCI) showed that the best months to travel to Kerman province were April, October, December and March and also the best seasons for tourist attraction were early spring, autumn, and late winter. Also, according to the results of the Physiological Equivalent Temperature Index (PET), the best conditions for traveling to Kerman province were during April, October, November, and March, and the best seasons for tourist attractions were early spring and autumn. Based on the results of the studied indices, it can be concluded that considering the conditions of the province and the climatic parameters used in each index, the results of Physiological Equivalent Temperature Index were more consistent with the conditions of Kerman province.