A comprehensive framework for comparing water use intensity across different tourist types

Abstract

Tourism products vary in their direct and indirect (supply chain) water use, as well as their economic contribution. Hence, water-scarce destinations require a method to estimate and compare water use intensity (water use in relation to economic output) for different kinds of tourist products in order to optimise their tourism offering. The present study develops an original framework that integrates segmentation with an Environmentally Extended InputOutput (EEIO) framework based on detailed tourism expenditure data and Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) in order to quantify the total (direct and indirect) economic impact and water use for multiple tourism segments. To demonstrate the rigour of the methodology it is applied to the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus as a case study. The results show that cheaper forms of tourism tend to have a significantly lower total water use and, depending on the economic impact indicator of interest, may have above-average economic contribution per unit of expenditure. The proposed framework provides a significant step towards achieving sustainable water use through destination-specific estimates of water use intensity which take into consideration segment-specific attributes. It is envisaged that this could eventually lead to customised interventions for diverse tourism market segments.

Incentives and Barriers to Water-Saving Measures in Hotels in the Mediterranean: A Case Study of the Muga River Basin (Girona, Spain)

“…A reduction in water use by the tourist industry is crucial for ensuring both the future of this industry [28] and the global sustainability of water resources in coming years [29,30]. In response to environmental laws and increasing social pressure to apply sustainable, environmentally friendly measures, some hotels have opted for obtaining environmental certification or minimizing waste [31].…”

Multi-Criteria, Cost-Benefit, and Life-Cycle Analyses for Decision-Making to Support Responsible, Sustainable, and Alternative Tourism

“…First, one should introduce sectoral interdependencies. Hadjikakou et al [111] discuss this in the context of an input-output analysis. Second, one should introduce the effects of spatial interactions.…”

Tracking Water Footprints at the Micro and Meso Scale: An Application to Spanish Tourism by Regions and Municipalities

“…Extensions or complementary works to this one could examine aspects of the types of tourism and the associated expenditures. These include the different types of tourism, that is, day visitor/traveler, high‐yield/luxury, business, low budget vs. high budget, “sun and beach” mass tourism, and so on, which are also with very distinct effects on water consumption (see, e.g., Hadjikakou et al., ).…”