Research Article

Sustainability of beach tourism in Türkiye in the era of climate change

Volume: 10 Number: 2 July 31, 2025
EN TR

Sustainability of beach tourism in Türkiye in the era of climate change

Abstract

Tourism is vulnerable to climate change. Türkiye is one of the leading tourism destinations. Beach tourism, based on the trio of sea, sun, and sand, is the main type of tourism in Türkiye. Climatic comfort in a destination is important for tourism attractiveness. Knowing how climate change will affect tourism is very important for the sustainability of the tourism sector. Therefore, applying climate indices to beach tourism in order to accurately evaluate climate conditions today and in the future is very important for the sustainability of tourism. In this study, to determine the impact of climate change on beach tourism the Climate Index for Tourism (CIT) is applied. CIT is specifically designed for beach tourism. Data is gathered from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Both historical observations and future climate projections are used. Considering the net zero targets of greenhouse gas emitter countries, only Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 scenario is implemented. Panoply software is used to visualize CIT maps. The future of beach tourism in Türkiye is evaluated for near (2021-2040), mid (2041-2060) and late-century (2081-2100). As a result, it has been shown that the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts will continue to be suitable for beach tourism in the summer. In the late century, due to warming temperatures, ideal conditions may shift to acceptable on the Mediterranean coasts. On the other hand, the CIT scores of the Black Sea shores will be lower and only part of this region will have acceptable climatic conditions under the RCP 4.5 scenario. The coastlines around the Marmara Region will represent a transition between the Aegean and Black Sea coasts.

Keywords

beach tourism , climate change , climate index for tourism (CIT) , sustainability , Türkiye

References

  1. Amengual, A., Homar, V., Romero, R., Alonso, S., & Ramis, C. (2012). Projections of the climate potential for tourism at local scales: Application to Platja de Palma, Spain. International Journal of Climatology, 32(14), 2095–2107. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2420
  2. Amengual, A., Homar, V., Romero, R., Ramis, C., & Alonso, S. (2014). Projections for the 21st century of the climate potential for beach-based tourism in the Mediterranean. International Journal of Climatology, 34(13), 3481–3498. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.3922
  3. Andrade, C. W. L., Montenegro, S. M. G. L., Montenegro, A. A. A., Lima, J. R. d. S., Srinivasan, R., & Jones, C. A. (2021). Climate change impact assessment on water resources under RCP scenarios: A case study in Mundaú River Basin, Northeastern Brazil. International Journal of Climatology, 41(S1), E1045–E1061. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6751
  4. Arabadzhyan, A., Figini, P., García, C., González, M. M., Lam-González, Y. E., & León, C. J. (2021). Climate change, coastal tourism, and impact chains - a literature review. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(16), 2233–2268. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1825351
  5. Asghari, M., Fallah Ghalhari, G. A., & Heidari, H. (2021). Investigation of Thermal Comfort Changes Using Summer Simmer Index (SSI): A Case Study in Different Climates of Iran. The Open Environmental Research Journal, 14(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.2174/2590277602114010013
  6. Aydınbaş, G., & Tabak, H. (2020). Türkiye-Rusya uçak krizi örneği üzerinden uluslararası siyasi krizler ve ekonomik etkilerin incelenmesi. In O. Köse (Ed.), Siyasi, Sosyal ve Kültürel Yönleriyle Türkiye ve Rusya 4 (pp. 89–101). Berikan Yayınevi.
  7. Aygün Oğur, A. (2022). İklim değişikliğine duyarlı turizm planlaması: Türkiye için fırsatlar ve tehditler. Çevre, Şehir ve İklim Dergisi, 1(1), 80–104.
  8. Aygün Oğur, A., & Baycan, T. (2023). Assessing climate change impacts on tourism demand in Turkey. In Environment, Development and Sustainability (Vol. 25, Issue 3). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02135-7
  9. Bafaluy, D., Amengual, A., Romero, R., & Homar, V. (2014). Present and future climate resources for various types of tourism in the Bay of Palma, Spain. Regional Environmental Change, 14(5), 1995–2006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0450-6
  10. Bağcı, H. R., & Kılıç, H. (2023). Çıldır Gölü Havzası’nda (Ardahan-Kars) iklim-insan ilişkileri. Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 33(2), 549–566. https://doi.org/10.18069/firatsbed.1209061
APA
Zeydan, İ., & Zeydan, Ö. (2025). Sustainability of beach tourism in Türkiye in the era of climate change. Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Tourism, 10(2), 213-223. https://doi.org/10.31822/jomat.2025-10-2-213