Hotel water consumption at a seasonal mass tourist destination. The case of the island of Mallorca

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Abstract

While it is true that tourism is one of the main driving forces behind economic growth in several world regions, it is also true that tourism can have serious negative environmental impacts, especially with regard to water resources. The tourist water demand can generate big problems of sustainability, mainly in those regions where water is scarce, as occurs in most coastal and small island destinations where a large part of world tourism is concentrated. Given the shortage of literature on the subject, further research into the tourist water demand is required, with particular attention to the hotel sector, since hotels are the most popular option for tourists, displaying higher levels of water consumption. The main purpose of this study is to develop a model to analyse hotel water consumption at a mature sun and sand destination with a strong seasonal pattern and scarcity of water; characteristics shared by some of the world’s main tourist destinations. Our model includes a set of different hotel variables associated with physical, seasonal and management-related factors and it improves on the capacity to explain water consumption at such destinations. Following a hierarchical regression methodology, the model is empirically tested through a survey distributed to managers of a representative sample of hotels on the island of Mallorca. From the obtained results, interesting recommendations can be made for both hotel managers and policy makers. Among these, it should be highlighted that the strategic move contemplated by many mature destinations towards a higher quality, low-season model could have significant negative effects in terms of the sustainability of water resources. Our results also conclude that managerial decisions, like the system of accommodation that is offered (i.e. the proliferation of the “all-inclusive” formula, both at mature and new destinations), could give rise to the same negative effect. Development of water saving initiatives (usually introduced in response to demand-based factors), also reveals significant effects over water consumption. Finally, other key factor in explaining hotel water consumption is the management system under which the hotel is run.

Introduction

Tourism is one of the main driving forces behind economic growth in several countries and world regions (Capo Parilla et al., 2007, Hyun Jeong et al., 2006, Neves-Sequeira and Campos, 2005). Some of the world’s leading economies owe their high levels of income to the tourist industry while other less developed countries rely on this sector to achieve a higher level of economic development. While it is true that the economic benefits of tourism, in terms of income and employment, are very high, probably due to the multiplier effects on the whole economy (Fletcher and Archer, 1991, Payeras and Sastre, 1994), it is also true that tourism can generate several negative impacts, that usually concludes in the emergence of negative attitudes among the resident population (Bujosa and Rosselló, 2007, Kousis, 2000, Kuvan and Akan, 2005). As a consequence, in recent decades there has been growing recognition of the need to achieve long-term sustainable tourism development, and public institutions are being forced to develop initiatives that will reconcile tourism growth with the sustainable management of environmental resources (i.e., Ecologic, 2007, Hamele and Eckardt, 2006, WTO, 2002a, WTO, 2002b, WTO, 2002c, WTO, 2004, WTO, 2005). As noted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, 2009), like any production sector, tourism has negative impacts and positive effects for the environment, society and the economy at local, national and global levels. In the case of environmental impacts, although the beneficial effects tourism can have by contributing to environment protection and conservation, most literature and several international organizations alert us to the possible negative impacts of tourism activity (Briassoulis, 2002, Davies and Cahill, 2000, Gunn, 1973, Healy, 1994, Huybers and Bennett, 2003, Kousis, 2000, Sasidharan et al., 2002, Tisdell, 2001).

Among the different environmental impacts of tourism, the effects on water resources are one of the most relevant impacts. As we discuss below, the tourist water demand can generate serious problems of overexploitation or depletion in places where water resources are in scarce, as occurs at most coastal and small island destinations (Ecologic, 2007, Essex et al., 2004, García and Servera, 2003, Gikas and Tchobanoglous, 2009b, Gössling, 2001, Kent et al., 2002, Pigram, 2001, Rico-Amoros et al., 2009, UNEP, 2009). These destinations are normally characterized by warm weather, cyclical droughts and a limited number of rainy days, especially during the tourism high season.

While there is extensive literature on water demands in other uses (public consumption, irrigation, and industry), this is not the case with the tourist consumption. In the little literature that can be found in this field, several calls are made for further research into the tourist water demand, particularly analyses of the factors that influence different uses of water by this sector (Ecologic, 2007, Lehmann, 2009, Gössling, 2001), especially at tourist destinations with water supply problems, such as arid and coastal destinations.

Our paper contributes towards finding new evidence of the factors that influence hotel water consumption at tourist destinations with a strong emphasis on traditional sun and sand holidays, and marked seasonal pattern (characteristics shared by most of the world’s top tourist destinations). In the limited literature on the subject, a set of variables is proposed for determining hotel water consumption tied in with hotels’ physical characteristics (i.e. the hotel size, existence of swimming pools, existence of golf courses) and with occupancy factors (i.e. the number of guests and overnight stays) (Bohdanowicz and Martinac, 2007; Deng and Burnett, 2002, Gopalakrishnan and Cox, 2003, Gössling, 2001).

Our model incorporates a set of variables that improves on the explanatory capacity of hotel water consumption at the said destinations. First, we believe that the seasonal component requires the consideration of specific factors not considered in previous literature (i.e. the number of months that the hotel is open) which might also affect water consumption. Taking into account that seasonality is a characteristic shared by several of the world’s leading tourist destinations (i.e., Greek Islands, French coast, etc), and that major efforts are being made by local governments to reduce it, an analysis of its potential effects on water consumption is fundamental. Secondly, we also consider that the hotel management system might have a significant impact on hotel water consumption. In our opinion, key management issues, such as the strategy followed by hotels, the system of accommodation on offer, the development of water saving initiatives (usually introduced in response to demand-based reasons), and chain affiliation, might all play a relevant role in explaining hotel water consumption.

This paper is structured as follows. First, we outline the complex relationship between tourism and water at coastal destinations. In Section 3, we analyse and describe the hydrological situation of the Balearic Islands and their tourism model, with particular reference to the island of Mallorca. Section 4 presents the main body of our research, that is, it specifies a hotel water consumption function and the methodology used to test our research hypothesis. In Section 5 we describe the prime characteristics of the sample, while Section 6 presents and interprets the main results. Finally, we outline the main conclusions of the study, addressing several recommendations both for policy makers and hotel managers.

Section snippets

Water resources and tourism in coastal zones

Several studies demonstrate that the viability and sustainability of any tourist destination is ultimately dependent upon an adequate water supply (both in quantity and quality) and constitutes a determining factor in the tourism lifecycle model (Essex et al., 2004, Kent et al., 2002, Rico-Amoros et al., 2009 1

A case study in the Balearic Islands: Mallorca Island

The Balearic Islands form an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, off the east coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is composed of four main islands (Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera), as well as a number of practically uninhabited smaller islands. The archipelago covers a total area of about 5000 km2, with a resident population (in 2009) of 1.1 million people. The following sections briefly describe the water situation in the Balearic Islands and the main features of

Methodology

As previously noted, the purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model aimed at specifying factors that determine water consumption by hotels at a mature tourist destination with a strong seasonal component which specializes heavily in the traditional sun and sand segment. Thus, total hotel water consumption17

Sample

The sample database was obtained from a survey distributed to a representative sample of 200 hotels in Mallorca. Based on Mallorca’s total hotel population (made up of 748 hotels), a sample list was selected, stratified by category and location in order to obtain a representative sample. They were classified by category in accordance with the internationally accepted star system (from 1 to 5 stars) and by location based on local authority tourism criteria, according to which the island is

Results and discussion

The models defined above were estimated using SPSS 17.0, and the results are outlined in Table 7. From a comparison of the estimated models, we can observe that the inclusion of variables related to seasonal hotel patterns and hotel management factors increases the R2 from 65.9% to 74.7%. This represents an increase of 8.8 points in the model’s explanatory capacity.

As for the diagnosis of multicollinearity, the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) values indicate that the model’s explanatory

Conclusions

Several conclusions both for policy makers and hotel managers can be drawn from the estimated results of our model. The most relevant is that the strategic move contemplated by many mature destinations (i.e., Mallorca Island) from the traditional low quality and high seasonal sun and sand tourism model, towards a higher quality and low-seasonal model, could have significant negative effects in terms of the sustainability of water resources. Thus, the introduction of measures aimed at changing

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for financial support from the Government of the Balearic Islands (PROGECIB-14B), who provided the funds for a database from a survey conducted by a team of professionals. We also grateful financial support from Spanish Government project fund SEJ2007-67895-C04-03/ECON.

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