Co-created climate indicators for assessing the spatio-temporal suitability of key tourist activities in Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre

Climate is a key determinant of tourism patterns and destination viability, and climate services offer a promising pathway to support climate-resilient tourism planning. This contribution presents a set of co-created climate indicators designed to assess the spatio-temporal climate suitability of key tourist activities in Costa Daurada and Terres de l’Ebre, two major coastal destinations in Catalonia that are highly exposed to climate variability and change. Building on previous participatory workshops with tourism stakeholders, the study selects priority activities – such as beach tourism, hiking, and cultural gastronomy – and links them to relevant climate variables, including temperature, precipitation, wind, significant wave height, and sunshine duration – among others.

Using reanalysis climate data and activity-specific thresholds, the indicators are computed for present climate conditions to characterise favourable, acceptable and unfavourable periods and locations for each activity. The results provide a detailed picture of the region's tourism climate potential, highlighting both current strengths and emerging vulnerabilities related to heat stress and changing rainfall patterns. The co-created indicators translate complex climate information into decision-relevant metrics that can be directly used by destination managers, policymakers and tourism businesses to adjust products, marketing and infrastructure, and to design adaptation pathways for coastal tourism. Beyond the case study, the work illustrates how co-created climate indicators can strengthen climate services for tourism, contributing to the implementation of climate-resilient strategies and to broader sustainability agendas at regional and international levels. The results also aim to contribute to the Catalan strategy of climate change adaptation (ESCACC30).