Based on theories in climatological study

this paper conducts a critical review upon several tourism climate comfort models. It then develops a new model called “STCI” (Summer Tourism Comfort Index) by absorbing insights from the model of Comprehensive Climate Comfort (CCC) and data from firsthand questionnaire survey. This paper applies the STCI model for evaluating places with good heat-avoiding condition for serving as summer tourism destinations in China

based on climate-related data from 244 cities. The results show that ranking lists under the STCI model

the CCC model and the report of “The Development of Summer Tourism in China in 2014” have significant differences. The conclusions are: (1) the STCI model identifies many potential summer tourism destinations in China which still have not been explored. These places have superior conditions for developing summer tourism

but they are yet to be effectively explored because of locational disadvantages or weak economic reputation. (2) Most of China‘s heat avoiding resorts are located in northeast (high-latitude) and southwest (high-altitude)

whereas whether the northwest part and “North China” are suitable for summer tourism  remains controversial. (3) Among all the 244 cities

there are seven highly potential cities for developing summer tourism such as Suihua city in Heilongjiang Province and Baoshan City in Yunnan province. Based on these findings

this paper provides suggestions for governments

industries and tourists accordingly.