ABSTRACT
Fresh water is one of the most essential resources to humanity, and it is becoming increasingly scarce. In 1995, an estimated 450 million people lived under severe water stress and an additional 1.3 billion people under a high degree of water stress (Vörösmarty et al. 2000). In the future, fresh water will become even scarcer, making the use and management of water an important political issue (see Clarke and King 2004). Tourism is highly dependent on the availability of fresh water resources (e.g. Orams 1998, Garrod and Wilson 2003). Recreational activities such as swimming, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, diving, fishing, and so on, are often related to lakes and rivers, which also form important elements of the landscapes visited by tourists (see also Chapter 4, this volume). Fresh water is also needed for the maintenance of tourist infrastructure such as swimming pools, irrigated gardens, bathrooms, laundry, etc. (see Gössling 2001). Tourism can exacerbate fresh water problems, because it is often concentrated in regions with limited water resources, such as islands and coastal zones where there are few fossil water resources, low aquifer renewal rates, and few surface water sources. Besides causing a shift in global water consumption from regions of relative water abundance to those that are water scarce, tourism also increases total water demand because people use larger quantities of this resource when they are on vacation (Gössling 2002, 2005). Related to these aspects, water quality may often decrease through tourism, as a result of the discharge of untreated sewage, nutrient loads and toxic substances into adjacent water bodies (UN 1995; WWF 2004). In the light of these findings, this chapter seeks to discuss the interdependence of tourism and water resources, the consequences of global shifts in water demand, and the effects of changing water availability in important destinations for the tourist industry.
