New performance indicators for water management in tourism

Tourism is increasingly recognized as a significant water-consuming sector on local, regional and global scales. As a consequence, the efficient use of water resources is now considered a key sustainability challenge for the tourism industry. To date, most research has focused on direct (on site) water consumption, with tourism water management based almost exclusively on direct water use benchmarks. This paper argues that such an approach overlooks the complexity of ‘local’ and ‘global’ water use, with local water use affecting sustainable water use in the destination and global water use representing the sustainability of water embodied in goods produced elsewhere, including fuels and food. Focussing on tourism accommodation as the locus of tourism water consumption, conventional water indicators are reviewed and discussed, and knowledge gaps identified. New data accounting for food consumption are then presented for a case study of resort hotels in Rhodes, Greece. The results are used to develop a novel set of performance indicators suitable for resort hotels and other accommodation, considering water availability, planning and operation, as well as complexities of direct vis-à-vis indirect water consumption. The findings suggest a significant potential for water and related cost savings, indicating that holistic water management should be an operational imperative.