Utilizing synoptic scale climate data within sustainable tourism development

Abstract

Abstract Tourism has great potential to be used as a tool towards achieving sustainable development. The appropriate implementation of sustainable tourism methods helps to establish local economic viability in concert with attentive treatment of both social and environmental systems. Maintaining such environmental and social integrity within a location is often the basis by which tourism demand is generated—drawing tourists from across the world. In this paper, we specifically address the use of climate information within Nepal where tourism in the Himalayas is driven by the human-nature interface and the unique culture which has developed in this alpine environment. In doing so, we highlight how focusing on a synoptic scale climatological analysis can provide valuable information within a sustainable tourism development context. Literature has established that tourists operate in ‘realms’ of climatic comfort that might be readily described through synoptic-scale atmospheric phenomena using descriptors such as ‘humid cool’ and ‘warm humid’ conditions. Variables of the Gridded Weather Typing Classification (GWTC-2) are used to describe local climate and climate change. Analyzing weather and climate data within a tourist-centric synoptic-scale context provides a new perspective to more fully understand sustainable development within the weather, climate, and tourism nexus.