ABSTRACT
Climate constitutes an important part of the environmental context in which recreation and tourism takes place and because tourism is a voluntary and discretionary activity, participation will often depend on favourable climate conditions. The betterment of health has been a common motive for travel since the taking of waters at mineral and hot springs was fashionable in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Kevan, 1993). By the latter half of the
Perry eighteenth century, a belief that drinking and bathing in sea water, and taking the sea air, had curative power led to the establishment of the first seaside resorts, notably at Brighton and Bognor Regis on the south coast of England. As it became more fashionable to be seen at the seaside than at spas, it became the vogue to seek out the sun, rather than cultivate pale consumptive complexions. In the twentieth century, a holiday in the sun was for long perceived as vital to well-being and the acquisition of a sun tan as important as the owning of consumer durables. Only very recently has concern about the link between skin cancer and UVB radiation caused some reappraisal.
