Water footprint of Chinese tourists: Directions and structure

Abstract

Tourism depends largely on a high water consumption. Previous studies have primarily focused on virtual water embodied in goods or products through trade. Our study provides novel insights into the virtual water embodied in goods and services purchased by tourists. We identified the tourism blue water footprint (TWF) of China according to the environmentally extended input–output table of 135 sectors (11 direct + 124 indirect tourism sectors) together with tourism satellite account data. The results show that the agriculture, electricity, and petroleum sectors majorly contribute to the indirect TWF, while the accommodation and air transport sectors majorly contribute to the direct TWF and were water intensive. Using a constant ratio of 1.5 relating local water footprints to tourist water footprints, we then estimate that China’s outbound tourists consume more water than inbound tourists (net TWF of 906 million m3). Nearly half of the net TWF from Chinese tourists is consumed in water deficient countries. Thus, the pressure caused by Chinese tourists on global water resources should be considered. This paper quantitatively evaluates the impact of China's tourism-induced water transfer on global water resources from the perspective of direct and indirect tourism consumption. The results of this paper enrich the research cases of the impact of final consumption on water resources utilization.