Estimation of Tourism Climate in the Lake Balaton Region, Hungary

Abstract

Lake Balaton is one of the most important and best-known tourist destinations in Hungary. Although in the last few years, several efforts were implemented to increase the length of the tourist season, the highest visitor turnover occurs in the summer months. We mostly regard the Lake Balaton as a bathing place, despite of the fact that the region offers more and more tourism products. The beach tourism and other lakeside activities are highly dependent on weather and climate. In order to know that a region's climate what extent is suitable to the given tourism activities, the tourism climate potential must be determined. This study aims to illustrate observed changes of the tourism climate potential of Lake Balaton Region during the last half century, by using Tourism Climatic Index (TCI) and Climate-Tourism-Information-Scheme (CTIS). The analysis is based on the long-term measured datasets of Siófok synoptic station. Based on the TCI, the tourism climate potential of the examined region is barely changed over the past 50 years; significant changes can be detected only in February and June. By using the CTIS, smaller changes can also be detected. Such changes are: moderate improvement of the thermal comfort in spring and autumn, slight increase in sunny hours in the tourism season, as well as the sultriness becomes more frequent in the summer months. The results may represent useful background information to the policy decision-makers.