Abstract:
As the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road tourism program aims on development of new tourist routs with special interest on the 3Polar regions – Arctic, Antarctica and Tibetan Plateau, management of climate risks in travels and their reduction is an important issue for achievement of its goals at national and local levels. Acclimatization is crucial for adventurous tourists, and especially for those travelling to extremely cold and highly elevated environments, when climate and weather in tourist destination differ significantly from those at home. The Acclimatization Thermal Strain Index for Tourism (ATSIT) is designed and used to measure numerically the physiological expenses a traveler pays during the acclimatization process. The purpose of the present report is to show acclimatization consequences for travelling from Beijing, capital of China, to destinations at the 3Polar regions during the main seasons, and back. The results demonstrate that acclimatizing to cold comes with greater physiological strain than adjustment to heat. Acclimatization load in winter season is low for all travels from Beijing and back home. ATSIT projections detect the most harmful degree of discomfort for summer travels from Beijing. The greatest acclimatization impact comes when changing location from hot-humid to cold-dry climatic conditions, which might cause high and very high physiological strain. Moreover, as many destinations in the 3Polar regions, mostly in the Tibetan Plateau, are located in mountains, a special acclimatization plan is required to weaken the threat of mountain sickness. The findings will be helpful for warning stakeholders and the decision makers, and are expected to be translated into action for the development of proper intervention procedures in health control, to minimize population loss.
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