THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE ON THE COMFORT OF TOURISTS IN THE ALGERIAN DESERT - THE CASE OF ADRAR STATE, ALGERIA

In an effort to address the delays observed within the tourism sector in Algeria, the Algerian government is currently undertaking initiatives to enhance various tourist destinations, with particular emphasis on the desert tourism destination due to the vast area occupied by the desert, which is approximately 87% of the total area of the country, it has enormous and charming tourism potential. Furthermore, the planning necessary for the development of desert tourism necessitates the consideration of multiple factors, including the climatic conditions that influence the degree of comfort experienced by tourists while engaging in diverse tourism activities, this will inevitably determine the length or shortness of the tourist season. This research endeavors to investigate the situation in the state of Adrar Located in the far southwest of Algeria as a representative model for desert tourism in Algeria by measuring the temperature and humidity index (THI) devised by the scientist Thom in 1959 to assess comfort levels, which depends on temperature and relative humidity, alongside the Robaa index (RI) proposed by Robaa Mohamed Abdel Hamid in 1999, which quantifies the level of climatic comfort by integrating three climatic variables: dry heat temperature, wet temperature, and wind velocity, utilizing climate data collected over the period from 1996 to 2008, which was sourced from the National Meteorological Office, and given the vastness of the study area extending over an area of 427.968 km2 (representing 17.98% of the total area of the Algerian state), we used data from the three meteorological stations located there, which are distributed spatially from the north of the state to its south as follows: Timimoun station, Adrar station and Bordj Badji Mokhtar station, This will enable us to identify comfortable and uncomfortable periods, with the aim of planning the various tourist activities that tourists can practice in this state according to those periods. In the present study, the descriptive analytical method was employed. The findings derived from this analysis indicated that the integration of these two indicators facilitated the identification of three distinct levels of climatic comfort within the state: complete comfort, relative comfort, and discomfort. These levels exhibit temporal variations throughout the months of the year, as well as diurnal and nocturnal fluctuations, and they also demonstrate spatial differences across the four regions of the state that extend from north to south.