Modeling tourism climate indices through fuzzy logic

Abstract

This paper proposes a fuzzy-based climatic index for tourism to reconcile imprecise linguistic terms with the computational rigor required by index calculations. A fuzzy logic-based inference engine contains IF-THEN fuzzy rules that are codified based on self-reported tourists' perceptions. Fuzzy logic helps to translate linguistic expressions of tourist perceptions of weather conditions into a score on the 7-point-scale Climate Index for Tourism (CIT). Fuzzy-based CIT was tested with data elicited from tourists, coming from a variety of climate regions, who visited the beaches of North Cyprus. Statistical analyses confirmed cross-cultural differences related to perceptions of favorable climate. Fuzzy-based CIT functions as a useful tool for calculating the climate attractiveness for tourists, which can be considered as a practical implication for tourism destination management.