CLIMATE COMFORT AND TOURISM. APPLIED STUDY AT DIFFENT TEMPORAL-RESOLUTION LEVES IN PUERTO IGUAZU, ARGENTINA

The climate is a factor that conditions tourist-recreational practices in outdoor spaces. Thermal well-being and comfort are visitor demands that can be evaluated through the thermal facet of the climate. This paper is applied to Puerto Iguazu, a destination with a humid-subtropical climate. It is structured based on two objectives, on one hand, comparing three bioclimatic indices: Thermo-anemometric Complex (P), Thermo-hygrometric Complex (THI) and Humidex (H), versus a climatic-tourist index: Tourism Climate Index (TCI) to establish which one offers a better adjustment to the reality studied. On the other hand, in order to generate information with a greater degree of detail, we seek to know the behavior in hourly resolution of the P and H. The calculation of the indices at a monthly level (P, THI, H and TCI) was carried out based on the climate statistics of the Iguazu Aero station for the 1981-2010 period, provided by the National Meteorological Service. The P and H indices in hourly resolution were calculated from meteorological data from the same station for the 2001-2010 period, obtained from the website Meteomanz.com. The obtained results show that the thermo-hygrometric component is the one with the greatest weight in the analyzed destination, which is consistent with its climatic characteristics. The application of the indices made it possible to determine the most benign moments of the year and hours of the day for carrying out tourist-recreational activities in outdoor.