The fact that water consumption in the tourist sector exceeds internal is not novelty. During the night, the visitor in the Canary Islands spends an average of almost 400 liters. But for residential use, this figure is reduced to 234, according to the official data of the regional government. What is surprising (and at the same time contradictory) is that although many residential institutions on the archipelago know how much water they consume in real time, they cannot reduce costs, but quite the other way around.
This is one of the conclusions of the recently published study in the academic journal Current problems in tourismprepared by researchers from two state universities of the islands. The study analyzes a sample of 213 tourist complexes (154 apartments and 59 hotels) was considered by “great consumers”, that is, they conduct more than 3,000 cubic meters of water per day in the dignity of de Tirajan, in the south of the Grand Canarius.
The sample is so wide that it is 82% of the tourist layers in the municipality, most visited in the Canary Islands, and approximately 93% of hotels and apartments that were in 2018, when the study collection ended after seven years of work.
The authors created a database with more than 9530 observations that allow you to find out a large amount of information about water consumption in accordance with the type of tourist institution, its category, its property, income and even climatic conditions. The main sources were Canaragua, the concession company of the public water supply service in the san -Bartolom de Tirajan, along with the Canary Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) and the Tourist Tourism Department (Turidata).
“There is no database with these characteristics around the world,” says Padron Fumero, a professor at the Department of Applied Economics and quantitative methods of the University of La-lagun (Ull) and one of the signature research. “It took us more than five years to publish the results, and the difficulties were huge: the lack of staff, resources … In addition to the complexity of the analysis,” he adds.
But the work was already widespread. And Padron Fumero emphasizes two relevant conclusions: firstly, that the massive implementation of digital meters reduced water consumption by 4.5%, which the researcher mainly ascribes to early detection of leaks and the effectiveness of distribution due to the possibility of a more accurate assessment of demand each time.
And secondly, those travel establishments that had access to the online platform, which showed their water consumption in real time, increased expenses by 5.4% on average. The understanding that these relationships are “random”, and not “causal”, is key, protects the expert. It can be contradictory. Because “more information should improve decision -making and, therefore, increase savings.” But “what does this tell us,” says Padron Fumero, is that more data is not enough to optimize consumption, because there are many barriers to him. The first “and the most important”, in his opinion, is who has access to these figures.
“If this is a large hotel, with a service team or an environment manager, something can be done with him. But if the information reaches the head of accounting (for example) that he has no ability to make decisions or has no influence, all that you can do is indicate that the consumption of water has increased ”and the specialist in natural resources and the management of waste on the islands of the Canary Islands already explains.
Padron Fumero protects that these data should be intersect with other variables, such as tourists’ influx, a visitor profile, seasonality or comparing them with similar complexes (reference indicators). Without this context, there is little or nothing can be done. “This work says: care, because smart counters give the company’s information, but so that it affects hotels, we must work in the measurement in which it takes place, and that it reaches those who should make decisions about savings,” the author of the publication insists.
The studies also mention the possible “rebound effect” or excessive confidence in the knowledge of accurate water consumption. He suggests that this, paradoxically, can lead to a more relaxed attitude of the personnel who trusts that the platform will notify what kind of problem. But in addition to cognitive prejudices, the work recognizes the complex hierarchies of tourist complexes, where the responsibility for using water is “not enough autonomy” for decision -making and managers, as a rule, “give priority to guest satisfaction against stable development initiatives”.
“There must be an incentive,” says Padron Fumero. “If you know what consumption is or what you have a leak, but the correction of this leak involves the closing of the hotel for several months, for example, you have no incentives to use information. You are still working, and when you arrive next year, a few days later, when tourists are less because you correct it, ”the expert calls.
That is why the study indicates that almost complete remodeling of water supply in the tourist sector is necessary. On the one hand, change the financing model for supply companies. Padrón-Fumero Remember that these companies are funded by “pure” water sale in order to cover their costs (maintain infrastructure or increase desalination, give examples) that a decrease in direct consumption directly makes them directly in the balance sheet.
What should be done is to start including water savings, such as “optimization variable”, the economist claims, which guarantees additional income in case of reduction in expenses. Or introduce a fixed quota and another variable, increasing the value of the first and “crashed”, and then the dependence of the relationship and economic relations. “The rates should be powerful enough to have information (use of water), have savings incentives,” the expert says.
Meanwhile, among travel companies, Padron Fumero sees an urgent transition from “voluntarism” to the deployment of mandatory norms, consumption standards and excessive fines. He emphasizes that “no one is to blame here, but the model.” But it’s time to put Jack for a cat. “You must change the rates and implant the model of fixed quotas and incentives. And as soon as fines are charged, because your consumption exceeds the supply guarantee, and fines will be offered, then everyone will place the batteries, ”concludes Ull teacher.
At least the first “promotion” is the availability of data. Tourism experts in the Canary Islands did not warn about the absence of reliable indicators to measure the stability of the sector, so in recent years. And this database that cost them emphasizes Padron Fumero, is the first step.
“In fact, why this study comes from there. We have problems as a tourist direction for managing or solving sustainability problems, because we do not know what is the impact or what is the contribution of tourism to these influences. And this is relevant, because if you do not know how it contributes to the sector, you cannot refer to the capabilities or barriers that exist in design politicians. Otherwise, what we see today, the politicians that we see today.
