Weather And Air Quality Preferences Of Urban Tourists In China

Climatic conditionsare a key variable that serves as a motivation to travel, influences destination choice and in-situ activities, and also impacts the overall tourism demand patterns and travel experiences. To have a better understanding of the impact of climate on tourism, numerous studies have discussed weather and air quality preferences for urban tourism. However, only few of these studies have focused on China, one of the largest tourism markets in the world. This study examines tourists’ weather and air quality preferences for Chinese urban tourism from Chinese respondents,as well as investigates whether preferred climatic conditions for Chinese urban tourism vary between other international studies. The results suggest that most of the ideal and unacceptable climate conditions identified for this sample are consistent or similar with existing international studies, except "unacceptable cool" condition(-3°C for this study and 15°C or similar for former literatures). Respondents are more concerned about air quality conditions during tourist decision making process. Chinese tourist destinations may lose potential tourists due to the poor air quality. And statistically significant differences of climatic preferences are found based on all four tourists’ demographics(i.e., gender, age, place of residence, and travel experience). This study has implications for Chinese tourism on weather and air quality impact assessment. And can be used as a reference study to guide further climatic preference research in China.