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Arid Land Geography ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (4): 697-712.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.590

• New Quality Productive Forces Driving High-Quality Development of Tourism • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal evolution of tourism climate comfort in Xinjiang, China and five Central Asian countries under climate change

GUAN Jingyun(), SUN Zhiyang, XU Xiaoliang(), CHENG Yifeng, SONG Beibei, FANG Ruiying   

  1. School of Tourism, Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics, Urumqi 830012, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-09-24 Revised:2025-10-09 Online:2026-04-25 Published:2026-04-28
  • Contact: XU Xiaoliang E-mail:guanjingyun@xjufe.edu.cn;xuxiaoliang@xjufe.edu.cn

Abstract:

As a typical arid region and a key corridor along the Silk Road tourism route, Xinjiang, China, and the five Central Asian countries require a systematic assessment of the spatiotemporal variability of tourism climate comfort and its future risks. Based on high-resolution gridded meteorological data and CMIP6 multimodel simulations, this study systematically analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution of the holiday climate index (HCI) from 1960 to 2100. The results indicate the following: (1) The HCI exhibits an overall increasing trend, with notable regional and seasonal variations. Greater increases occur in mountainous areas, whereas some arid basins exhibit slight decreases. Under the SSP585 scenario, both the magnitude of future HCI increases and associated uncertainties are higher than those under the SSP245 scenario. (2) Intra-annual variations of HCI exhibit “single-peak” and “double-peak” patterns. Future warming is projected to reduce summer comfort in some regions, with summer HCI under the high-emission SSP585 scenario in the late future (2071—2100) falling below the historical baseline (1985—2014), thereby narrowing the suitable tourism window. (3) The spatial distribution of HCI shows clear latitudinal zonality and vertical differentiation, with high-value areas concentrated in low-altitude, low-latitude regions. Although these high-value areas are projected to expand further in the future, extremely high summer temperatures are expected to reduce the extent of the highest-comfort zones (HCI>90). (4) The tourism climate comfort period has significantly lengthened, with greater increases under high-emission scenarios, though accompanied by enhanced variability. Spatially, comfort periods are longer in low-latitude, low-altitude regions and shorter in high-latitude, high-altitude areas, with significant increases projected in high-altitude mountainous regions over the long term. These findings provide a scientific basis for climate adaptation and the sustainable development of the tourism sector in the region.

Key words: HCI, tourism climate comfort, climate change scenarios, spatiotemporal evolution, climate risk