Effect of outdoor thermal comfort condition on visit of tourists in historical urban plazas of Sevilla and Madrid.

Abstract

The tourism plays a significant role in economics and development of any country through revenue generation from multiple sources. Spain has been tourist place and host million foreign tourist. The tourism is highly depended on climate and thermal comfortness of the visiting place. This present research aimed to analyze the outdoor thermal comfort conditions in microclimates of the urban ancient plazas of the two important cities of Spain, namely Sevilla and Madrid on a hot humid stress day of the year. The microclimatic measurement, questionnaire survey, and simulation results were examined to evaluate the thermal comfort condition of six different urban plazas in Sevilla and Madrid to distinguish the supreme time to visit each ancient site. The results have suggested that the outdoor thermal comfort range for the tourist in the historical plazas of Sevilla and Madrid varies from 28.42 to 30.87 °C and 24.5 to 29.82 °C in the hot summer. Despite the high heat stress condition, the result of questionnaires survey shows that about 38.11% and 28.09% of tourists in Sevilla and Madrid, respectively, were satisfied with the thermal conditions. As witnessed from the result of the Envi-met simulation, Plaza de Santa Ana of Madrid and Plaza Nueva of Sevilla is the best place for visitors in the early morning hours. Additionally, during the peak hours, the thermal comfort of Alameda de Hercules of Sevilla and Plaza de Santa Ana of Madrid is the most suitable historical places for visitors, whereas in the evening hours, Plaza Nueva of Sevilla and Plaza de Mayor of Madrid with wider semi-open spaces and relatively suitable vegetation bring more favorable conditions for visitors. The comparison of the simulation result with the questionnaire reveals that the urban plazas with relatively high thermal stresses have a higher rate of thermal dissatisfaction.