An Assessment of Tourism Climate Comfort in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor

Abstract

Pleasant climates can be divided into two types: the comfortable summer climate and the comfortable winter climate, but existing studies rarely pay attention to the distribution characteristics and differences between the two types of climate. This study investigates the spatial distribution of comfortable summer and winter climates in the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and their differences based on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis-Interim (ERA-interim) reanalysis data from 1979 to 2018. The Universal Thermal Climate Index was used to analyze climatic suitability. The findings are as follows. First, the comfortable summer climate regions of the CPEC were mainly distributed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and some regions of Xinjiang in China and also sporadically distributed in high altitude mountains, such as the western plateau area. The comfortable winter climate regions were mainly distributed in vast areas except for Karakoram and nearby areas. Second, there are a few regions with dual attributes of comfortable summer and winter climates in CPEC. Third, according to the calculation and comparison of the regional area of different climate comfort levels in summer and winter, it is found that the comfortable summer climate is scarcer in CPEC and is a monopoly resource. The comfortable winter climate is widely distributed, belonging to the ubiquitous resources. These findings can be helpful for the tourism development of local climate resources.