Abstract
The efficient management of water resources by the tourism sector is essential to be able to achieve sustainability in the future. Hotels, together with other tour operators, have a responsibility not to use more water than is absolutely necessary. Through a survey carried out in hotels on the island of Mallorca, we asked hotel managers about their water consumption and what types of water-saving measures they had introduced. We identified eleven water-saving measures, which were classified into “advanced” and “simple” according to the technical complications and the level of economic investment required. The numbers of measures of each kind that had been implemented were used as the dependent variables in two different Ordered Probit models. This method allowed us to identify the main variables that explain the introduction of water-saving measures. The significant main variables leading hotel managers to adopt simple water-saving initiatives are the existence of laundry facilities, the age of the hotel, and the number of stars. The same variables were found to be important for the introduction of advanced measures. The main drivers for introducing water-saving measures were the reduction in costs, followed by environmental concerns, while legal requirements and customer loyalty were found to be the least important drivers.
Highlights
The tourism sector has increased significantly in recent years, and is the industry that has grown the most in the world
The recovery period is usually more than three years, the water savings are greater than those obtained by basic water-saving innovations. Among these we find the control of water losses in the water supply and distribution network, monitoring and metering water in different departments or areas, optimization of irrigation systems in gardens, reuse of gray water for toilet flushing or for irrigation, recycled water for irrigation, installation of ozone systems in the laundry, rainwater collection and use for irrigation and toilet flushing, replacement of air-based cooling equipment by condensation equipment, installation of pressure regulators in the main water intake areas, swimming pools with seawater, etc
Simple water-saving innovations are more widely implemented than advanced innovations
Summary
The tourism sector has increased significantly in recent years, and is the industry that has grown the most in the world. According to the World Tourism Organization, the number of tourists was 1329 million worldwide in 2017, concentrated largely in regions with water scarcity, such as islands and coastal areas [1]. Forecasts suggest that this growth will continue in the future, reaching 1800 million people in 2030 [2] (p.35). The sum of both types of consumption means that a tourist’s water consumption, in per capita terms, is much higher than that of a resident’s consumption It can, be double or triple in developed countries [6,7] or up to fifteen times higher in developing countries [8]
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