The Heritage Climate Index (HERCI): Development, Assessment and Application for Tourism Purposes in Geoheritage and Cultural Heritage Sites
2023
Uroš Durlević | Nina Čegar | Milica Dobrić | Sandra Vukašinović | Tin Lukić | Vladica Stevanović | Dragan Radovanović | Aleksandar Valjarević
The development of climate indices and their application can influence the preferences of tourists and the time frame for visiting the locality. This study develops a new Heritage Climate Index (HERCI) that finds its application in assessing climate comfort for visiting geoheritage and cultural heritage objects. The study analyzed the geoheritage site in Western Serbia (Stopić:a Cave) and the cultural heritage site in Eastern Serbia (Golubac Fortress). The index was developed to represent climatic comfort on a monthly basis and consisted of five climatic elements. The values of the HERCI index were obtained based on the multi-criteria decision-making model&mdash:the Best&ndash:Worst method (BWM). The results were classified into five classes, depending on the degree of conformity. After a comparative analysis of the index results for four localities and their attendance for the period 2012&ndash:2021 and 2019&ndash:2022, it was determined that there is a very high level of correlation (>:0.9). This is the first study to use the BWM to develop and analyze a climate index. From the aspect of tourism policy, this study significantly contributes to tourism organizations and tourists in better understanding climate comfort and making decisions about the organization&rsquo:s time frame and realization of the travel.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute