Tourist land use patterns and water demand: Evidence from the Western Mediterranean

Impacts of climate change on water resources in the Mediterranean Basin: a case study in Catalonia, Spain

“…Changes in seasonal stream flow may have important consequences in water supply for the environment and for agricultural and urban uses (Schröter et al 2005), especially during dry seasons. Large reductions are expected in summer, the dry season within the Mediterranean climate domain, when water demands for irrigation (Rosenzwieg and Tubiello 1997) and tourism (Rico-Amorós et al 2009) are heightened. Major reductions are also predicted in spring and autumn, which may have important consequences for natural and agricultural ecosystem functions (Miranda et al 2011).…”

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

“…In the last decade there has been much talk of upgrading or diversifying tourism in the Mediterranean (Bramwell, 2004;Rico-Amoros, Olcina-Cantos, & Sauri, 2009), an area traditionally associated with 'sun and sand' mass tourism, with the purpose of maximising tourism revenue. Recent studies suggest that the luxury end of the tourism market uses considerably more water, mainly as a result of its reliance on water-intensive facilities (Hof & Schmitt, 2011;Rico-Amoros et al, 2009;Tortella & Tirado, 2011). However, these studies consider only direct water use and do not include any economic impact estimates.…”

Water consumption patterns of hotels and their response to droughts and public concerns regarding water conservation: The case of the Barcelona hotel industry during the 2007-2008 episode

“…The sector contributes to global environmental change, and, likewise, it may be affected by this change (Chang and Wong, 2006;González and León, 2001;Gössling, 2002;Molina-Azorín et al, 2009;Gössling et al, 2012a;Scott et al, 2012). Many of the related and supporting activities of tourism depend on the availability and reliability of freshwater resources which may be threatened by climate change in certain areas (Gössling, 2006(Gössling, , 2015Gössling et al, 2012b;Mensah, 2006;Rico et al, 2009). Destinations without ample and reliable water resources may suffer from drastic declines in tourist arrivals.…”

“…Methods Results and discussion Conclusion and implications for future research Acknowledgments Bibliographical references tourist activities in arid or semi-arid areas such as the Mediterranean (MolinaAzorín et al, 2009;Rico et al, 2009;Saurí and Llurdés, 2010;Vera, 2006). There is already evidence that water shortages may have negatively affected the tourism sector (see, for example, Kent et al, 2002for Mallorca in 1995and Gil-Olcina, 2010 for the 1978 drought in Benidorm).…”

“…Other studies have examined the determinants of environmental innovations (González and León, 2001) and the implementation of environmental management systems (Chan and Wong, 2006). Less has been said, however, about the determinants of resource use-consumption in hotels (Bohdanowicz and Martinac, 2007;Deng, 2003;Trung and Kumar, 2005) and studies that have specifically investigated the relationship between water and the hotel industry are even scarcer (Deng and Burnett, 2002;Gössling, 2006Gössling, , 2015Kent et al, 2002;March et al, 2004;Rico et al, 2009;Vera, 2006). These studies tend to be interested in the role of the local water environment on the quality and competitiveness of the tourist product (González and León, 2001) but tend to ignore issues such as water use and the adoption of water saving practices as adaptive responses to climatic phenomena, particularly droughts.…”