Zero tourism due to COVID-19: an opportunity to assess water consumption associated to tourism

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, with confinement of the population and zero-tourism period, allowed us to assess, for the first time, the volume of water used (both directly and indirectly) by the tourism sector. This research fills a gap in water management, assessing the decrease in water consumption during the lockdown period, which coincided with the tourist season, comparing 2019 and 2020 in the Balearic Islands (Spain). Results demonstrate important differences among nine municipalities, depending on their ratio between overnight stays of tourists and total population. Water consumption decreased 58%, 40% and 14% for high, medium and low tourist areas, respectively, during the lockdown period. Extrapolation to the whole Balearic Islands gives an overall decrease of 24.2%, which can be considered the percentage of water directly used by tourism. The estimated water volume directly consumed by tourism is similar to the amount of groundwater used by irrigation agriculture. These results can be useful for water managers and policymakers in revising the hydrological plan during the third management cycle, which has not yet quantified water consumption by the tourism sector. Policymakers should focus on the touristic municipalities with higher water demand and support policies to reduce the water consumption during the tourist season.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• lockdown
• water consumption
• tourism
• Balearic Islands

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Acknowledgements

Monthly data was provided by Direcció General de Recursos Hídrics del Govern de les Illles Balears. In particular, the help of Avilio Erades and Sergio Martino is very much appreciated. Discussions with Joana Garau, Director General, have always been fruitful. P RL was supported by MCIN/AEI through the Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación program (IJC2019-041601-I(. Comments made by four reviewers and the Editor in chief greatly improved the final version of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Celso Garcia

Celso Garcia has a PhD in Geography from the University of Barcelona (1997). His research focus on surface and groundwater hydrology, temporal streams, and water resources. His work on water management has been used by the municipalities in Barcelona for their Ordinance about water saving (2005), and his proposed measures on Drought and the touristic sector used by the Government of Catalonia (2008). He is full professor of Physical Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands and associate editor of Hydrological Processes.

Bartolomé Deyà-Tortella

Bartolomé Deyà-Tortella is associate professor in the Department of Business and Economics at the University of The Balearic Islands. He has published several research papers in international impact journals like Water Resources Research, Water, Sustainability, Journal of Environmental Management, Advances in Accounting, Management Research, The European Accounting Review, among others. He has participated in 14 national and international research projects in competitive calls. Has held different academic positions such as Full Dean of the Faculty of Tourism, director of Melia Hotels International Chair, director of Tourism and Environmental Chair, deputy director of the Department of Business Economics.

Jorge Lorenzo-Lacruz

Jorge Lorenzo-Lacruz has a PhD in Physical Geography (with distinction) and a Msc in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing. He worked as lecturer in the University of Zaragoza, University of the Balearic Islands and University of La Rioja during the last 8 years. His research is focused on water resources and hydroclimatic interactions. Jorge has published near 40 scientific articles in international journals so far, and he is member of the editorial board of Hydrology (MDPI) and Geographical Research Letters.

Enrique Morán-Tejeda

Enrique Morán-Tejeda has a PhD in Geography in 2011 by the University of Salamanca, has conducted research the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (Spain), the Institute for Environmental Studies of the University of Geneva (Switzerland), the Institute for Meteorological and Hydrological Studies of Colombia and in the Colorado State University (USA). He currently occupies a tenure track position as lecturer in the Department of Geography of the University of the Balearic Islands. His research aims at understanding the interactions between climate and hydrology in natural systems in the context of global change.

Pablo Rodríguez-Lozano

Pablo Rodríguez-Lozano works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Geography of the University of the Balearic Islands. He holds a Degree in Environmental Sciences (2009), a Master in Ecology (2010), and a PhD in Ecology (2016). His current research focuses on the human dimensions of nature with the final aim of help solving conflicts about water and freshwater ecosystems.

Dolores Tirado

Dolores Tirado is Professor at the Department of Applied Economics at the University of the Balearic Islands, UIB. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Business Studies (1992) and a PhD in Economics (2003) from the UIB. Her teaching field is environmental economics and natural resources management and microeconomics. Her main research interests are Water Economics and Policy, CGE Models and Water and Tourism. She has provided technical assistance to various administrations responsible for hydrological planning and has participated in several competitive research projects related to water management. She's currently dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the UIB.