Evaluation of the Tourism Climate Index in the Canary Islands

Quantifying climatic suitability for tourism in Southwest Indian Ocean Tropical Islands: Applying the Holiday Climate Index to Réunion Island

Climate is a key resource for tourists and tourism providers. Varied approaches to quantifying climate resources for tourism have been developed in the last 40 years, computing indices from a range of meteorological variables to measure the comparative climatic suitability of different destinations through time. This study provides the first application of a tourism climate index in the tropical southwest Indian Ocean, applying the recently developed Holiday Climate Index (HCI) for Réunion Island. The suitability of this index is evaluated for the case of this French department, with a particular focus on air conditioning availability in tourism accommodation establishments as this index excludes night-time thermal comfort. Both iterations of the HCI (HCIBeach and HCIUrban) are computed with meteorological data from Roland Garros Airport for the period 1991-2020, exploring monthly, annual, and seasonal climatic suitability. Mean monthly HCI scores reveal considerable seasonality in climatic suitability for tourism on the island with scores ranging from 89.3 ('excellent') to 36.9 ('marginal') for the HCIBeach and 85.0 ('excellent') to 27.5 ('unacceptable') for the HCIUrban, with more favourable scores calculated for July and August, displaying a clear austral winter peak seasonal classification. Over the 30-year period, there is no statically significant change in mean annual climatic suitability, and at a monthly scale, only one month of the year for each index displays statistically significant trends. These results are important in informing tourism strategies for the island to maximise visitor satisfaction through targeting advertising more deliberately for peak touristic climate suitability during the winter months.

Long-Term Analysis of Aerosol Concentrations Using a Low-Cost Sensor: Monitoring African Dust Outbreaks in a Suburban Environment in the Canary Islands

This study presents the results of the long-term monitoring of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations using a low-cost particle sensor installed in a suburban environment in the Canary Islands. A laser-scattering Nova Fitness SDS011 sensor was operated continuously for approximately three and a half years, which is longer than most other studies using this type of sensor. The impact of African dust outbreaks on the aerosol concentrations was assessed, showing a significant increase in both PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations during the outbreaks. Additionally, a good correlation was found with a nearby reference instrument of the air quality network of the Canary Islands' government. The correlation between the PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations, the effect of relative humidity, and the stability of the sensor were also investigated. This study highlights the potential of this kind of sensor for long-term air quality monitoring with a view to developing extensive and dense low-cost air quality networks that are complementary to official air quality networks.

Influence of Trade Winds on the Detection of Trans-Hemispheric Swells near the Canary Islands

Trade winds are common in the Canary Islands archipelago and affect not only the weather of the islands but also the local wave climate. On the other hand, the arrival in the Canaries of swells from the Southern Hemisphere is little known, but usual. The records of these swells arriving in the Canary Islands have two clear peaks throughout the year, one in spring and the other in autumn. In this work, how the trade winds influence the detection of this type of swells is studied. It is estimated that only approximately half of this type of wave that reaches the Canary Islands could be adequately recorded in the buoy output data tables by the action of these winds. Therefore, their effects may be underestimated in local wave climate studies.