Rating Tourists' Interest in Tourism-Tailored Climate and Environmental Products

Abstract

The scientific literature comprises a relatively large palette of studies focusing on tourist preferences regarding the weather and climate at the destination. However, the findings do not allow for establishing a hierarchy of climate and environmental features of interest for tourism based on destination type (urban/rural/mountain/seaside), but mainly to list them. We aim to identify some characteristics of a potential climate service targeting tourists by addressing in particular three aspects: 1. which are the weather, climate and/or environmental features most commonly marked as of interest in the general case of 'any destination type' and for the particular case of rural destinations; 2. which are the delivery and presentation forms of greatest interest; 3. how willing would be the tourists to pay for such a service. To this end, we used a questionnaire with five closed questions regarding these aspects, disseminated in Romania and Italy. The results confirm some expectations based on scientific literature and highlight the user interest in information encompassing several climates and/or environmental aspects, preferably in one single product. The results may be valuable for developing and providing effective tourism-oriented climate and environmental products and contribute to a better user uptake of such products and services.