In rooms at the Yurbban hotels in Barcelona, guests will face a challenge in bed: an hourglass that encourages showering at four minutes, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended time. Being aware of the water consumption required by its activities, The tourism sector has implemented solutions that will help reduce the consumption of its customers in its activities. without affecting your stay. Although some hotel groups have started to implement measures related to this issue years ago, companies have reinforced their determination to work for a more sustainable tourism that adapts to drought periods. Automatic faucets or pools with a recirculating water system are mixed with original ideas that encourage tourists to avoid waste.
There are no national figures for the water a tourist consumes on a daily basis, but a general picture can be drawn from the data collected in Barcelona. On average, A hotel customer consumes 163.5 liters of water per day According to the latest report by Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona, the cost of cleaning, irrigation and swimming pools is not always taken into account, compared to the 127 liters of water a city dweller in his room has. If we add these features, according to the report prepared by the City Council based on the data collected in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, the consumption rises to 194 liters per person per day. In the last seven years, the water consumption of a hotel customer in Barcelona has decreased by 40%, thanks to increased awareness and measures taken by companies.
Miguel Ángel Sotillos, president of the Spanish Federation of Tourist Housing and Apartment Associations (FEVITUR), says the difference between a tourist and a local is that “people tend to forget good traditions when they go on vacation.” But this year, there is no room for citizens and tourists. 38% of the country is on alert or in an emergency due to water shortagesLike Catalonia, which has imposed restrictions on 24 municipalities due to the lack of precipitation. In other crowded areas of the Spanish coast, such as Benidorm, salt water is used in beach showers to avoid wasting drinking water. In Malaga, where the drought was intense, the water parks of the city were closed by cutting off the water of the showers on the beaches since the beginning of August. But the lack of rain has spread to the rest of the peninsula: “For several years now, the northern cornice has been asking people for information on conserving water where drought has hit the hardest so far,” says Sotillos.
Comprehensive water control
At a time when Spain has reached pre-pandemic records, tourism cannot afford negative criticism of its management. Some measures have been implemented by a large part of the industry. Two of these are the most followed by both hotel groups like Hesperia and tourist accommodation: installation of double-stage reservoirs and vent cocks To halve the water flow. Another of the most applied measures in touristic establishments is to replace bathtubs with showers.
One of the most supported solutions by big hotel names reuse of water. Melià Hotels Internacional also advocates “recovery of gray water for toilets and outdoor cleaning” and “recovery of rainwater for garden irrigation”. Likewise, Barceló hotels invested in 2022 to install “presence sensors on taps as well as flow and pressure reducers” and purchased water reuse systems, which also contributed greatly to resource savings. Tourist accommodation facilities also preferred to replace their devices with devices that would provide the most savings possible.
technology also a good ally to control daily consumption. Meliá has launched a digital twin of the water infrastructure of two hotels, one in Tenerife and the other in Palma de Mallorca, to calculate water footprints in the most automated way and with the most detail possible. When the project ends in 2025, they will expand the vehicle to other hotels. “We are able to reduce our water consumption thanks to the continuous monitoring of our consumption and the operational control we have developed at our facilities,” says the hotel group. The company explained that Barceló also has a technological tool that “centralizes all meters and allows continuous monitoring and analysis of all consumption”.
awareness
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In addition to the improvements in its facilities, touristic facilities They used their minds to sensitize their customers. Yurbban isn’t the only one betting on challenging his guests. Visitors to a room in Barceló will find a QR code in the shower to access the four-minute song ‘playlist’ so that the customer does not exceed WHO recommendation and avoid consuming too much water.
But ultimately tourism uses: awareness of your customers. Gremi d’Hotels de Barcelona has provided graphic material to all hotels in the city to encourage their customers to pay attention to their water consumption, but informative posters are increasingly spreading across the region. For tourist accommodations, more drought-intense regions such as Andalusia or the Valencian Community have “invited customers to save water for years,” and this is now being seen in homes all over Spain. “Whether it’s necessary or not, we try to be as green as possible,” says Sotillos.