Recent research by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has revealed that in 2021 the entire water footprint of the Travel and Tourism industry was just 0.6 per cent of global water use.
According to WTTC figures, before the pandemic started the sector’s total water footprint was only 50 per cent higher than currently, but still less than one per cent of the global total at 0.9 per cent, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The same source also pointed out that the direct use of water by Travel and Tourism is significantly lower since in 2019 it was 0.2 per cent of the global total and thus has halved to only 0.1 per cent of the global total.
Based on WTTC data, during the period 2010-2019, the Travel and Tourism sector in Europe and Africa reduced direct water use, as in Europe, direct water use fell by eight per cent, while in Africa it fell by six per cent.
In this regard, WTTC President and CEO Julia Simpson said that WTTC’s groundbreaking new data shows the sector’s water consumption for the first time ever, revealing that Travel and Tourism uses less than one per cent of the water used worldwide.
As Simpson explains, these figures also reveal that although the sector has grown economically around the world, its water intensity of direct use has declined.
“The data is the most in-depth study of the sector’s water use, and like the world-first climate footprint data we released at our Global Summit in Riyadh last year,” she also added.
According to her, in some specific countries, the water footprints of the travel and tourism sector can also be reviewed in order to further be reduced.
Since 2010, the water intensity of Travel and Tourism per unit of GDP has decreased in both direct and indirect use. In this period, the sector used 0.57 m³ of water for every US dollar contribution to the economy.
Meanwhile, in 2019 this figure dropped by 19 per cent to make 0.46m³ of water for every US dollar contributed to the global economy.
Recently, WTTC, through research, has also revealed that one of the countries that have seen positive growth in the travel and tourism sector while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions is Italy.
The report shows that during 2019, the Italian sector marked 8.4 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, which is below the European average of 10.7 per cent. While a year later, this percentage fell to 4.2 per cent.
All these recent researches by WTTC have been made thanks to the partnership of the Global Center for Sustainable Tourism which is based in Saudi Arabia. Through the Saudi Green initiative, more than 60 initiatives were launched last year, representing over $186 billion of investments in the green economy.
>> Portugal Has Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions Despite Growth in Travel & Tourism Sector
