Analysis of the differences in thermal comfort between locals and tourists and genders in semi-open spaces under natural ventilation on a tropical island.

The adoption of natural ventilation is prevalent in semi-open hotel lobbies on the tropical island of Hainan, China. This paper presents the results of a thermal comfort study of such applications in ten luxury hotels in this region. Significant differences were found between the local residents and tourists in their thermal satisfaction and between the males and females in their thermal comfort. Moreover, the thermal satisfaction levels of the local residents and tourists showed significant correlations with the wind speed and air temperature considering the wind speed compensation, with regard to genders, the males’ thermal comfort levels showed significant correlations with the wind speed and air temperature considering the wind speed compensation, while the females’ thermal comfort levels showed significant correlations with air temperature, wind speed and the air temperature considering the wind speed compensation. And results of ordinal logistic regression show that the tourists are more sensitive to the wind speed and air temperature considering the wind speed compensation than the local residents, and the females are more sensitive to the air temperature, wind speed and air temperature considering the wind speed compensation than the males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]