Assessment of the Appropriate Climate of Outdoor Recreational and Sport Tourism in Shahrood County, Iran, Using the Quantitative Indicators of Thermal Comfort

Sport tourism is one of the developed areas of tourism. The relationship between sport and tourism is more understood in the recent years. The main goal of the current study is to identify the best times for outdoor tourism in the city of Shahrood based on climatic conditions.

This is a descriptive-analytical research. Two quantitative indices including Olgyay and Effective Temperature (ET) were used to determine tourism climate and Bahmanpour et al., (2012) model were used to determine the suitability of tourism with climate. For this purpose, statistical data on temperature and relative humidity of the study area over the last 35 years were assessed and evaluated.

Results indicate that according to Olgyay index, May, June, August and September are in the thermal comfort zone and are the best times for normal sport tourism in Shahrood. On the other hand, July is not a good time for outdoor tourism due to the high heat and December, January, February and March due to the high cold. On the other hand, according to the effective temperature index, the months of June, August and September are in the thermal comfort zone and the months of July, November, December, January, February and March are not suitable times for tourism. The minimum average of relative humidity was set at 24%, which is outside the standard range of the Olgyay index.

The best months for outdoor recreational and sport tourism according to both Olgyay and ET are June, August and September.