Today, World Water Day, the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) has released a 24-page report entitled, “Water Stewardship for Hotel Companies.” Be sure to read it. The report explains the connection between areas of tourism growth and water stress, and recommends six steps essential to any corporate water stewardship strategy.
ITP’s goal is to “support increased water-use efficiency, sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and reduce the number of people affected by water scarcity by embedding water stewardship programs across hotel portfolios.”
How bad is the global water problem? According to the report, the impact of growing human activity, population and climate change mean that over a billion people lack access to improved water. A total of 2.7 billion (40 percent of the world’s population) suffer water shortages for at least a month each year.
Guests Consume More Than Locals
Oftentimes there is a significant difference between the water consumed by hotel guests in a particular area as compared to residents living in the surrounding area. “As an example, tourism uses on average 8.3 times more water per person per day than locals in Sri Lanka, seven times more than locals in China, and five times more than locals in Indonesia,” the report says.
Water often falls outside of hotel companies’ priority action in their approach to sustainability, in most cases because of its low price, ITP says.
“Resilience and dependency on water is particularly important when looking at hotel development in the coming years,” the report adds. “The sector’s growth in water scarce countries such as China (where hotel development continues at a pace that would see at least three new 150+ room hotels open every day for the next 25 years) or India calls for careful planning and water risk assessments to avoid depleting or polluting water resources and to ensure water supply in years to come.
The report spells out some of the risks to hotels in areas where water shortages or the compromising of water quality exist. Risks range from regulatory to reputational to financial.
The report details 10 reasons why hotels should act and offers case studies demonstrating companywide and individual property success stories. Finally, the report includes links to useful tools and websites.
