An assessment of the climatic suitability of Afriski Mountain Resort for outdoor tourism using the Tourism Climate Index(TCI)

作     者：Kirsten NOOME Jennifer M.FITCHETT 

作者机构：School of Geography Archaeology and Environmental Studies University of the Witwatersrand 

出 版 物：《Journal of Mountain Science》 (山地科学学报（英文）)

年 卷 期：2019年第16卷第11期

页      面：2453-2469页

核心收录：

学科分类：12[管理学] 0709[理学-地质学] 0819[工学-矿业工程] 0303[法学-社会学] 120203[管理学-旅游管理] 1202[管理学-工商管理] 0708[理学-地球物理学] 0818[工学-地质资源与地质工程] 0705[理学-地理学] 0815[工学-水利工程] 0706[理学-大气科学] 0816[工学-测绘科学与技术] 0813[工学-建筑学] 0704[理学-天文学] 0833[工学-城乡规划学] 0713[理学-生态学] 0834[工学-风景园林学（可授工学、农学学位）] 

基　　金：funded by the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeoscience 

主　　题：Climate Tourism Climatic Index(TCI) Lesotho Highlands Outdoor tourism Snow tourism 

摘      要：Tourism Climatic Indices(TCIs)are widely used in the global North to quantify the climatic suitability of a destination for *** one such study has been conducted in southern Africa to *** is in a chronic shortage of research on tourism and climate change in the southern *** study presents the application of the TCI in Lesotho,calculated for the eastern Lesotho *** region has an emerging tourism sector,which primarily comprises outdoor *** include hiking,horse-riding,music festivals,mountain biking,cultural visits,sightseeing,and at the Afriski lodge,skiing and *** activities are reliant on climatic conditions that are conducive to the activity taking place,prolonged periods outdoors,and tourist satisfaction of the *** is a major determinant of both the length of season for these activities and the timing of peak tourist *** temperatures and changes in relative humidity and precipitation pose real threats to hiking,sightseeing and snow tourism at *** reliance of tourism in the region on specific climatic conditions for successful tourism prompted the use of the *** results classify the eastern Lesotho Highlands as having‘good climatic conditions with an overall TCI score of 64 for the period *** TCI scores for the eastern Lesotho reveal a bimodal-shoulder,meaning the peak climatic conditions are in the regional summer months(December to February).This conflicts with the peak tourist seasons of summer and winter,which align with South African school holidays,and the timing of the most profitable tourism activity(skiing)which occurs during the winter months of June,July and *** is landlocked by South *** analysis for South Africa reveals more suitable climatic conditions for tourism than Lesotho,with significantly higher scores of 80-89.