The Coastal Tourism Climate Index (CTCI): Development, Validation, and Application for Chinese Coastal Cities

Climate is an essential component in the sustainability of tourism cities. Coastal tourism cities face unprecedented challenges under a changing climate. The complexity of the tourism-climate interface predicates the need for tools that can assess the weather and climate accurately. Tourism climate indices have been widely developed to evaluate the temporal and spatial distribution of climate resources, but these indices are not entirely applicable to coastal cities facing air pollution. This study developed a Coastal Tourism Climate Index (CTCI) to assess the tourism climate suitability of Chinese coastal cities. The CTCI was developed to include five variables: thermal comfort, sunshine, precipitation, wind, and air quality. This index was applied and verified in the case of nine coastal tourism cities in China compared to the Holiday Climate Index (HCI: Beach). According to the results, the CTCI is more suitable for coastal tourism climate assessment in China. Finally, corresponding countermeasures are put forward for the balanced and sustainable development of Chinese coastal tourism cities. This study takes the lead in applying big data to the development and validation of tourism climate indices. These findings provide novel insights for the tourism climate assessment of coastal destinations facing air pollution.