Changes of human thermal comfort in Qinghai Province from 1979 to 2024 based on UTCI and its potential tourism impacts

With the increasing frequency of summer heatwaves under global warming, Qinghai Province, located on the Tibetan Plateau in western China, is a cold and high-elevation region that has emerged as an attractive summer destination, drawing a growing number of tourists and showing substantial potential for tourism development. However, there is a lack of local thermal comfort studies to inform sustainable tourism planning in the region. Based on the ERA5 dataset from 1979 to 2024, this study investigates the spatiotemporal variations of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) and thermal comfort in Qinghai Province. The results indicate that the regional average UTCI of − 6.81 °C corresponds to slight cold stress and has increased at a rate of 0.4 °C/decade, resulting in an increase of 3.49 comfortable days/decade, primarily driven by rising 2 m air temperatures. Qinghai, particularly Haidong and Xining, has become increasingly favorable for summer tourism due to both the higher proportion and growth of comfortable summer days, hosting three of the province’s four national 5 A-level tourist attractions, the highest official rating for scenic sites in China. The ongoing enhancement of thermal comfort presents significant opportunities for tourism-driven economic growth.