Determination of Bam County's Tourism Climate Index for Tourism Development

Climate and tourism as the main components of a system affect each other in different ways and raise a new subject as tourism climatology. Climate is very important from the perspective of tourism planning and tourists usually look for favorable climate or comfortable climate. This study was conducted to determine tourism climate index in the Bam county. Tourism climate index (TCI) uses 7 climatic parameters to study the comfortable climatic conditions of tourism and determine the right times for tourism in an area. For this purpose, first the meteorological data related to synoptic meteorological stations were collected and the index was calculated as point for each station. Then, the study area was specified by converting the point data to the status of tourism climate at different zones and finally by studying the ecological features of the area and preparing the potentiality map, the zones which have the appropriate potential for tourism development have been identified. The largest area is related to the zones with unpleasant conditions for tourism and the areas with a high potential for tourism are located in the southwest parts of the county. According to the maps of tourism climate of the area, four months of the year that include March (Esfand), April (Farvardin), October (Mehr), and November (Aban), TCI is in an excellent condition and are the best times for tourists to use the area. The lowest index is related to the months of June (Khordad) and July (Tir) when the tourism climate conditions are acceptable.