Evaluation of urban tourism in Piranshahr using Holiday Climate Index (HCI) and Tourism Climate Index (TCI)

Tourism is a phenomenon that takes various forms with an intertwined and hidden mechanism at different times and places, and therefore has completely different effects on human societies. One of the most important ways to expand the tourism industry in a region is to know and study its climate in different months of the year and the climatic conditions of the destination is one of the most important information needed by tourists to travel and use the indicators. Different climates in different geographical areas can help to plan tourism in that area so that tourist attractions can be better used for leisure. Therefore, in this study, the climatic conditions of Piranshahr city using climatic data for a period of 30 years (1989-2018) and the use of tourism climate index (TCI) and holiday climate index (HCI) in different months of the year to determining the desired months in terms of tourism was evaluated. The results showed that both indicators are almost the same in terms of points in winter and the lowest scores of both indexes are related to this season. At the end of spring and summer, the difference between TCI and HCI index becomes apparent, so that in contrast to TCI index, the highest HCI score is observed in summer. This is due to the high values of temperature scoring in this index. In summer, they are almost similar in terms of showing the tourism situation, and the only difference is in the amount of points. In the middle and late season, autumn is almost the same situation. In general, the comparison of the two indexes showed that the TCI index a wide range of climatic conditions in terms of tourism during the year. While the HCI index shows less variability and volatility. Therefore, TCI index has a better performance than HCI index for Piranshahr climate. In general, according to the results, it was determined that the months of May, June, September and October have the most favorable climatic conditions for tourism in the city of Piranshahr.