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Through an empirical investigation of the historical relationship between the destination climate and tourist arrivals in the Caribbean, this study presents the first revealed preference evaluation of a climate index informed by tourists&rsquo, stated climatic preferences for coastal-beach tourism (i.e., a sun-sand-surf or 3S travel market). The goal of this multi-organization collaboration was to examine the potential application of a newly designed climate index&mdash, the Holiday Climate Index (HCI):Beach&mdash, for three Caribbean destinations (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Saint Lucia). This paper provides an overview of the evolution of climate indices, including the development of the (HCI):Beach. To test the validity of climate indices for a beach travel market, daily climate ratings based on outputs from the Tourism Climate Index and the HCI were correlated with monthly arrivals data from Canada (a key source market) at an island destination scale. The results underscore the strength of the new index, with each destination scoring consistently higher using the HCI:Beach, including a stronger relationship (R2) between index scores and tourist arrivals. These findings demonstrate the value of combining stated and revealed preference methodologies to predict tourism demand and highlight opportunities for future research.

O presente artigo pretende analisar a transformação das funcionalidades das praias marítimas que, atualmente, se destacam como alternativa aos principais destinos de massas, atendendo ao caso concreto da região do Alto Minho, no norte de Portugal. Nesse sentido, foi realizada uma análise sistemática e comparativa das praias com o objetivo de explorar o processo de transformação do litoral através das alterações nas suas funcionalidades turísticas. O método utilizado permitiu uma comparação temporal (histórico-atual) e espacial (as praias atuais). Como tal, a pesquisa pretende contribuir para uma melhor compreensão da dinâmica das áreas costeiras menos turísticas de Portugal, em contraste com os destinos mais populares, conotados com o turismo de massa., This paper aims to analyse the transformation process of alternative coastal areas to the principal mass tourism destinations. In particular, the focus is on the different evolutionary path and the changes in the tourism-related functionalities arising primarily from different climatic conditions. To this end, the coastline of Alto Minho region of Northern Portugal was used as a case study. A systematic and comparative analysis has been con-ducted to explore what functions these littoral areas develop and how do these functions change over time. The method allowed for a temporal (historic vs. present) and a spatial (current beaches) comparison. As such, the research aims to contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics of the less touristic Portuguese coastal areas as compared to the mass tourism destinations of the country.