Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Tourism Management and Hospitality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Which Hotel Is Performing Better in Water Conservation? Introducing A Proposal for A New Synthetic Indicator
Ariadna Gabarda-Mallorquí, Dolores Tirado, Bartolomé Deyá, Xavier Garcia
ABSTRACT:
The assessment of water-saving efforts among tourist companies for sustainable tourism planning purposes can be quite challenging. This is because water-saving monitorization in hotels are often standardized and not tailored to the specific characteristics, potential, or innovation barriers of each hotel. Smaller and family-run hotels may lack the resources and technical expertise to implement basic water-saving measures, adding complexity to any water management strategy and making conservation efforts more difficult for them. Therefore, it is essential to include innovation efforts to save water in any sustainable evaluation and monitoring. This fact can enable public administration to develop specific water-saving strategies for promotion, funding, or planning. This study aims to propose a synthetic indicator, called the Water-saving Challenge Indicator (WCI), that assesses the level of difficulty in implementing water-saving measures. This approach will ensure a comprehensive assessment of all hotels in a specific destination, without distinguishing between infrastructure and business characteristics. The WCI serves as a comprehensive tool for analyzing the obstacles and barriers perceived by hotel decision-makers. When combined with essential data like potential savings and payback periods for water-saving measures, the WCI offers a complete overview. This enables water and tourism planners to take targeted actions in addressing these challenges.
keywords: water-saving, innovation, monitorization, sustainability, decision-making