Study on Thermal Environment Characteristics and Tourists' Thermal Comfort Benchmark in Subtropical Island Beach Scenic Spots

The outdoor environment of subtropical islands with high temperature, high humidity, strong radiation and strong wind speed has a great impact on outdoor thermal safety and thermal comfort of personnel. Ensuring the thermal safety and thermal comfort of the human body is of great significance to the development of island tourism. This study conducted thermal environment monitoring and thermal comfort questionnaire experiments in Hailing Island Beach Scenic Area to explore the outdoor thermal environment and human thermal comfort in the beach area, identify the factors affecting human thermal comfort, and determine the thermal comfort benchmark for tourists in the beach area. The research results show that: 1) the beach underlying surface albedo is 0.4, which is much higher than the common urban underlying surface albedo. The beach radiation environment is strong and the thermal environment is poor in summer. 2) On sea-land breeze days, sea breeze can effectively alleviate the heat stress in the offshore areas of island beaches. 3) Forests have a significant attenuation effect on solar radiation. Even sparse coconut forests have a certain hindering effect on radiation and the thermal comfort of human beings in the forest space is relatively good. 4) Tourists’ active thermal adaptation behaviors can avoid thermal discomfort, but the effect is limited. 5) This study obtained the thermal comfort benchmarks for beach tourists, and the thermal neutral ranges were: 20.93-29.01 °C (PET), 25.91-30.50 °C (UTCI), and -29.13-50.24 W/m² (COMFA), respectively. The research conclusions can provide a theoretical basis for the creation of outdoor thermal environment in beach scenic areas and the assessment of tourists' thermal comfort.