Zero tourism due to COVID-19: an opportunity to assess water consumption associated to tourism

The COVID-19 pandemic, with confinement of the population and zero-tourism period, allowed us to assess, for the first time, the volume of water used (both directly and indirectly) by the tourism sector. This research fills a gap in water management, assessing the decrease in water consumption during the lockdown period, which coincided with the tourist season, comparing 2019 and 2020 in the Balearic Islands (Spain). Results demonstrate important differences among nine municipalities, depending on their ratio between overnight stays of tourists and total population. Water consumption decreased 58%, 40% and 14% for high, medium and low tourist areas, respectively, during the lockdown period. Extrapolation to the whole Balearic Islands gives an overall decrease of 24.2%, which can be considered the percentage of water directly used by tourism. The estimated water volume directly consumed by tourism is similar to the amount of groundwater used by irrigation agriculture. These results can be useful for water managers and policymakers in revising the hydrological plan during the third management cycle, which has not yet quantified water consumption by the tourism sector. Policymakers should focus on the touristic municipalities with higher water demand and support policies to reduce the water consumption during the tourist season.