WeCENT – a prototype of climate service for tourism

Tourism is an important socio-economic sector, contributing in 2021 with about 6.6% to EU GDP and accounting for 10.3% of the total labour force (https://wttc.org/DesktopModules/MVC/FactSheets/pdf/704/38_20220613172620_EuropeanUnionLCU2022_.pdf ). It is also important for the well-being of both tourists and residents (e.g. Uysal et al, 2015; Godovykh et al, 2021) by providing extending opportunities for leisure activities, social and cultural interactions, economic benefits etc. Climate data and services bring their contribution in this area too. Most information available and easily accessible for tourists on weather, climate and other environmental aspects is not too specific, usually referring to single, well-known meteorological parameters (air temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration) and being in the form of monthly means and extremes. But the tourists may benefit and are interested as well in information assembled from several meteorological parameters, able to give an overall, more concentrated indication on weather characteristics suitable for outdoor leisure activities. Also, there are climate and environmental information of greater interest for tourists depending on the type of destination (e.g., rural) and which are not easily accessible for the usual tourist.

Aiming to answer to this interest, the WeCENT (Weather, Climate and Environmental Information for Tourism) project proposes a prototype of a climate service targeting the tourists. A variety of tourism-customized information, adapted for urban, rural, mountain and beach destinations in Italy and Romania is built based on climate reanalysis, satellite-based products, analysis and forecast products. The information is freely available and accessible through the project website (https://pric.unive.it/projects/wecent/home#c4213).

 

References

Godovykh, M., Ridderstaat, J. and Fyall, A. (2021): The well-being impacts of tourism: Long-term and short-term effects of tourism development on residents’ happiness, Tourism Economics, 2021, Vol. 0(0) 1–20, DOI: 10.1177/13548166211041227

Uysal, M., et al., Quality of life (QOL) and well-being research in tourism, Tourism Management (2015), http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.07.013