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WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM:
AN INTRODUCTION
Eduardo Brito-Henriques,
João Sarmento & Maria Alexandre Lousada
1. The Earth, a breakable liquid world
The Earth’s image seen from the moon, which the astronauts
from Apollo 8 captured for the first time on a photograph in
December 1968, is amongst the strongest and most beautiful images
produced in the 20th century. The intense blue of Earth contrasting
over the dark background of the universe has an extraordinary visual
effect; a sublime image that challenges us in remembering something
which we tend to forget simply because we inhabit in land: that over
70% of Earth’s surface is covered in water.
Remembering some trivial geographic data can help understand
until what point water is important in the configuration of the world
in which we live in. The Pacific, the largest ocean, stretches over an
area of 166 million km2, which means that only this ocean occupies a
surface greater to all emerged land. The Atlantic is twice as big as the
South and North America. In total, all four oceans and the largest seas
together occupy approximately 362 million km2; besides that, we also
have vast areas of the continents permanently covered by glaciers and
ice caps, which occupy 14 million km2 just in the Antarctic.
It is estimated that the Earth holds 1386 million km3 of water in
its various states – solid, liquid and gas (Clarke and King, 2004: 20).
The largest water reservoirs are the oceans, whose basins, with depths
averaging between -1330m in the Arctic and -4188m in the Pacific,
store 1,351 million km3 of water, which is equivalent to 97.5% of all
existing water on Earth. Oceans are the main supply of water vapor in
Water and Tourism. Resources Management, Planning and Sustainability.
Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa: 13-33.
14 WATER AND TOURISM
the atmosphere. Each year almost 503,000 km3 of water is released by
evaporation from the oceans, but the most of this water falls back into
them (458,000 km3 per year) joining again the source of the Earth’s
salt water (Clarke and King, 2004). The proportion of water that is
found in the gaseous state in the atmosphere is minimal, never
attaining 0.001% of all water existent on the planet.
Despite this over abundance of water, the amount available for
the consumption of plants, animals and human populations is
insignificant. Fresh water, which is essential for life, corresponds to
only 2.5% of the Earth’s water, or approximately 35 million km3.
However, from this small portion, almost 70% isn’t accessible; it
corresponds to water stored in solid state in the great polar ice caps
and as glaciers and perpetual snow in the high mountains and
circum-polar regions (Clarke and King, 2004: 20). The other 30% of
fresh water, corresponding to 10.5 million km3, is mainly found
deposited in underground aquifers, which are reloaded very slowly,
and whose water is normally accessed by humans with great
difficulty. It is a fact that the superficial aquifers can easily be
explored through wells, but the more extensive water tables are
found encapsulated in the bedrock located hundreds of meters below
ground, where only through modern drilling is possible to gain
access – which ends up being expensive and technically complicated.
The water that precipitates over continents is also very hard to make
use of. Two thirds of the 119,000 km3 of water which fall over
continents all over the world are lost through evaporation or
absorbed by the soil. On the surface and in the liquid state, directly
available for consumption, humans have little water available to
them; in lakes and in rivers only slightly more than 100,000 km3 of
water is found, which is equivalent to circa 0.3% of the total fresh
water in the world (Clarke and King, 2004: 20), but even this water is
only partly used by human populations seeming that the largest lakes
on Earth and some of the longest rivers are found in inhospitable areas
where the climate is very cold (e.g., Lake Baikal, which is the largest
fresh water lake in the world, and also the Lena River, both in Siberia)
or very hot (the Amazon River, the Zaire River, etc.).
Water is an essential element for life. It is, moreover, the main
component of all living existence. Although all the entire biome on
Earth retains a residual portion of the existent water on the planet,
water is an essential part of the mass of living organisms. A newborn
human, for example, has more than 70% of its body mass composed
by water, and an adult human about 60%. In the simplest multi-
cellular living being, such as fungi and jellyfish, that percentage easily
rises to over 80%, possibly reaching more than 95%.
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 15
All cellular forms need water. Water is the liquid where the
colloid cell particles are dispersed. Being a universal solvent, water
ensures the transportation of substances to and from the cells. It is
here that absorbed nutrients circulate throughout the organisms, and
it is through here also that toxic products resultant from cellular
metabolism are expelled. Furthermore, water exerts an essential role
in the thermoregulation of living beings. Among the common
solvents, water is the one with the highest specific heat value. Thus,
the water contained in living organisms keeps almost constant the
temperature of such organisms in relation to its environment.
The importance of water for biochemistry determines that, in
land environments, the variety and the abundance of living beings
will depend on the presence of this element. Biodiversity is minimal
in both torrid and frigid deserts, precisely because of the scarcity of
water in its liquid form, and is at its maximum in humid environments,
such as tropical rainforests. On the other hand, the capacity of
producing vegetable mass per unit of surface and time increases also
with the availability of both water and heat. It is due to this that the
highest crop yields in the world are found in the inter-tropical zone.
The importance of water in human physiology and its relation to
the abundance of life explains why, throughout history, humans have
always sought to settle themselves in its proximity. Contrary to what
is often thought, the aquatic world is not a marginal one, strange and
foreign to the world dominated by humans. The hydrosphere did not
escape the humanization of Earth; on the contrary, it was itself
appropriated and dominated by human populations and actively
used by them in their strategies in the expansion and occupation of
the planet. The Mesolithic shell middens, found in several parts of
Europe, including in the Iberian Peninsula, seem to be proof of this.
They show that the oldest human sedentary communities correspond
to groups of hunter-collectors which would seasonally establish
themselves along the coast, on estuaries and deltas, to live off the
catch of mollusks, fish and waterfowl hunting, and thus, to some
extent, following an amphibian lifestyle. We also know that the first
complex civilizations of antiquity appeared around rivers, among
populations that developed sophisticated forms of water management
and, thus, enabled their transformation in what K. Wittfogel (1975)
called “hydraulic societies”. The ‘centre’ of ancient Egypt, for example,
resided on the Nile. Apart from providing water for irrigation of fields
and the nutrients for the fertilization of the soil, the Nile served as a
way of communication between the Upper and Lower Egypt,
between the valley and delta, which allowed the exploit of the
16 WATER AND TOURISM
complementarities of these two environments and the guarantee of
political unity of the kingdom. In pre-Columbian America, the Aztec
civilization thrived with the support of Lake Texcoco. This is another
clear example on how the development of complex societies normally
implies the mastery of the hydrosphere and the humanization of both
land and aquatic areas. The Aztecs ‘domesticated’ the waters of the
lake through a complex levee system which controlled the floods,
built tanks and channels for the distribution and collection of rain
water, and ‘colonized’ the very mirror of water with their chinampas, a
kind of floating beds made from wood, wicker mats and tree
branches, filled with mud removed from the lake itself, and fixed at
the bottom with wooden stakes and with the aid of heavy stones.
Environmentally incorrect cultural practices, especially a poor
management of water resources, may have given rise to the decline
and collapse of many human societies in the past, as J. Diamond
(2004) has advocated. The Mayan civilization from Yucatan, whose
disappearance was most probably due to soil erosion and scarcity of
water caused by the deforestation of hills around the cities, is an
example quoted by Diamond (2004). Deforestation associated with
the practice of intense irrigation may also have been the cause of the
decline of the Mesopotamian civilization, once that the deviation of
water from its natural channels and the over-exploration of the
aquifers will have made lower the groundwater levels, thereby
paving the way for the salinization of soils and the consequent
desertification of the entire region surrounding the Tiger and
Euphrates.
The management of water resources constitutes a crucial aspect
in the sustainability of human societies. The possibility of a society
thriving and surviving always depended throughout history, at least
in part, in the efficiency of the control of water resources and the way
these are managed. Despite always being in constant circulation,
flowing from rivers into seas, evaporating from seas into the
atmosphere, and falling back again on the Earth in the form of
precipitation, water exists in limited amounts. The water we have
today on Earth is the same as it was 4 billion years ago. Fresh water,
in particular, is far from being considered inexhaustible. It is true that
through the hydrological cycle there is a part of the water from seas
and oceans which every year is desalinated and converted into fresh
water, but the speed at which this is done does not accompany the
growth of its consumption. The most serious issues involve the
exploitation of the aquifers, because what took thousands of years to
form can be destroyed in just in a few decades.
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 17
Issues relating to water management have always been crucial to
human societies. Nowadays these issues not only continue to be
decisive but are even considered to be more critical than ever before.
Today there are problems at stake that never before human societies
had to debate. The population growth in the last two centuries, the
large-scale urbanization and the industrialization have created
pressures on water resources unparallel to ever before in history.
Pollution is one those problems. In the seas, the concentration of
population along the coasts, the contamination of waters via chemical
fertilizers, the increased circulation of vessels, accidents, the
exploitation of oil deposits, as well as the cleaning of oil tankers at
high seas, are some of the factors that have contributed highly in the
aggravation of pollution situations. Vast stretches of the Gulf of
Mexico, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, for example, constitute today
‘dead zones’, this being, hypoxic areas where the lack of oxygen
makes it impossible to have marine life. Pollution associated to the
overexploitation of fish stocks by industrial fishing and the
overheating of sea waters are today serious threats to the bio-
diversity of the oceans, claiming some studies that 63% of worldwide
fish resources may be at risk (UNEP, 2010: 14).
Perhaps even more serious than the problems affecting the
oceans are those involving freshwater reserves. Those problems
concern, first of all, the consumption of freshwater, which has been
increasing at a high rate not only due to the population growth, but
also to the improvement of living conditions. In fact, as populations
grow wealthier, eating richer foods, consuming proteins at a larger
scale, having a more stringent hygiene care and using cars, washing
machines and personal computers, also increases their spending of
water. The production of 1 kg of wheat involves, on average, a
consumption of about 1000 litres of water, but to produce 1 kg of beef
we will need 15,000 litres of water. The production of 1 kg of paper
consumes 325 litres of water. Thus, whilst in 1900 each inhabitant on
Earth consumed an average of 350m3 of water per year, in 2000 that
consumption reached at 642m3 (Clarke and King, 2004: 25).
Food production is the main cause of freshwater consumption in
the world. Roughly 70% of freshwater consumption is destined for
agriculture, used to irrigate the fields. Apart from that, millions of
people throughout the world remain undernourished, especially in
countries with water shortages. Thus, much more water is needed to
feed the world population. The sustainability of this consumption,
however, raises new problems since other new activities are each time
competing for its use, being tourism one of them.
18 WATER AND TOURISM
S. Soloman (2010: 368) said “Throughout history the ceiling of
man’s capacity to extract greater water supply from nature had been
bounded only by his own technological limitations”; today, however,
“an additional, external obstacle has arisen to impose critical
constraint – the depletion of the renewable, accessible freshwater
ecological systems upon which all human civilization ultimately
depends”. This is why water is today such a crucial issue and why we
urgently need to reconsider its governance and management.
2. The tourist experience of waterscapes and liquidity
Throughout history, human beings have established complex
relationships with water. Using it to wash themselves, contemplating
it, playing and defying it, are some of the expressions and actions that
this relationship has assumed. Between the intimate and the social,
fear, repulse, anxiety and pleasure are the feelings that have mediated
the contact with water, as inseparable from the imaginary of the
body. A brief, and necessarily condensed synthesis of the main
moments of these relations, indicates two grand transformations: a
change within the notion of decency and a change of sensibility in
water practices (Vigarello, 1985; Corbin, 1988).
The bath and the therapeutic use of water constitute two of the
oldest practices, since in Europe its origins are referred to the Roman
period. In the middle ages, public baths are still practiced, although
its true raison d’être is centred on the festive sociability, which is more
or less prohibited, and not on the baths themselves, thus causing a
progressive condemnation of this practice. However, the main motive
for its ending is due to medical reasons. Throughout the 16th century,
everywhere in Europe, the public bath establishments are gradually
proscribed, due to the belief that hot water would open the pores and
permeate the body, thus allowing for the entrance of the harmful airs
of the plague. Corporal hygiene and cleanness practices do not
disappear altogether, nevertheless they change. In the higher social
strata, ‘dry’ hygiene practices are imposed, requiring the frequent
change of garments, frictions and perfumes. If on the one hand the
practice of public and private baths recesses in all social structure in
virtue of fear, on the other hand, the water is used as an element of
ostentation by the aristocracy and royalty: in cascades, fountains and
water fests coordinated with fireworks. The tamed water becomes an
exhibition which aims to seduce the eye.
By the 18th century, although limitedly and irregularly, a slow
transformation of water practices starts to occur on the habits of the
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 19
aristocracy, with the bath, ablutions and immersion on water.. The
appearance of the hot bath becomes more connected to the pleasure
of the contact with water than to hygiene, and it is seen as a mark of
distinction and luxury. Recommended in spring and summer, this
bath, still confined to aristocracy, is a “seasonal practice, largely elitist
and vaguely sensual” (Vigarello, 1985: 86). More than hygiene, the
provoked sensations caused by the immersion in water dominate. The
new practices are accompanied by medical theoretical work, in which
the virtues of hot water are described. A few decades later, doctors
and hygienists will defend the virtues of cold water, its body
invigorating qualities, both from the moral and physical point of
view. By the end of that century, the establishments of river baths,
which until that moment have been reserved for therapeutic cures,
start to be seen within a tonic and hygienist dimension. At the
beginning of the 19th century, some doctors affirm that the sea breeze
and the maritime baths, both salted and cold, are beneficial for health,
acting as body builders. The argument is even extended as far as
claiming that the cold bath contributed to the moral character of the
individual, the nation, and even the species. The bath and immersion
at the sea, as the most common practice, provokes a mixture of
pleasure and of suffocating pain that are on the basis of a new way of
conceiving the body (Corbin, 1988).
At the same time, a new sensibility in relation to the sea had been
developed. Still, in the 18th century, literary and iconographic
representations of the sea emphasise hazardous, repulsive and
catastrophes landscapes; a restless scenery. Yet, from the late 17th
century, progresses in oceanography and the recess of devil’s
presence on the mental history of the west (Corbin, 1988: 30)
inaugurate a change on the way of seeing the sea. A long path started
to take travellers in search of the sea, seeing it as beautiful and
sublime, and contemplating it without fear, enjoying the cheerfulness
of the water.
A new harmonious relation between the body and the sea was
elaborated and a new pleasure that led to the discovery of the
coastline, to the invention of the beach and maritime surveillance was
built (Corbin, 1988). Places that until then had not “exercised any
attraction for travelling or vacations” (Porter, 1995) started to be part
of the emerging touristic circuits
The thermal baths, the hydrotherapies, have suffered a path
which is similar to the bath. Practiced since the Romans, thermal
baths eclipsed during the middle ages, despite being always
understood as a relief for certain diseases. During the Renaissance,
20 WATER AND TOURISM
nobles and princes rediscover the thermal waters, using them for
healing purposes. It was only in 1750 and 1780 that the European
elites have invented the modern thermal sojourn, within a trend that
also includes the invention of the watering-places and the
“discovery” of the mountain. The novelty resides in the conciliation
between the therapeutic and hygienist purposes of the maritime
mineral-medicinal waters, the invigorating seaside and mountain air,
with a festive sociability dominated by leisure. The British aristocracy
transformed the “medical sacrifice of cure into the pleasure of the
tour” (Rauch, 1995), with Bath serving as model to the new thermal
practices, and as Brighton inventing the beach. The thermal treatments
and sea baths occupied the morning of these first tourists. The rest of
the day was occupied with excursions, sports activities (the traditional
horse riding was joined by new sports such as sailing, tennis and
football) and evening concerts, dance and gambling in clubs and
casinos. The thermal sojourns became “a place of luxury and
languor” (Porter, 1995). With the decline of the hygienist paradigm of
the use of water, the attendance of the thermal sojourns declined, and
the consumers started to prefer watering places, where the beach was
combined with an increasing leisure provision.
Although bathing places (‘bathing machines’) existed until the
1920s (Travis, 1997 and Chase, 2005), the early 20th century saw the
birth of swimming, where the leisure experience covers the
therapeutic ends. Plunging baths are substituted by swimming and
diving. The pleasure of the exercise is joined by the exhibition of the
body, and by a simplification of costumes. The contact with nature
has been extended to the defiance of the waves. Between the late 19th
century and the late 20th century, still the new practices were found to
be socially constricted, although there was a new change. It was the
beginning of the discovery of the pleasure of contact with the sand
and warm waters of the Mediterranean. The English elite moves to
the south of France and to the Italian coasts, the latter having the
extra attractive of representing the exotic and responding to the
desire of escape from the thermal sojourns and from the beaches of
their own country, which were invaded by the peasantry (Porter,
1995). Soon after, the therapeutic virtues of the sun on the prevention
of rickets are discovered. The exposure to the sun, which was
previously avoided, starts slowly to be part of the habits of the
summer tourists. The whiteness of the skin which had been a sign of
distinction, gives place to tan (Andrieu, 1988; Ory, 2008). The covered
body, especially the hidden feminine shapes gives place to the
exhibition of the body. After the WWI, the jersey allows to a change
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 21
of the texture of the bathing suit costume and in 1930 a new bathing
garment of just one piece that leaves the back nude and allows to a
more intimate contact with the water and sand appears (Lavenir,
1999: 291). Gradually, the masculine and feminine bathing suits
expose the skin. This was a dramatic transformation that in a later
period affected cold weather countries, such as England (Lansdell,
1990: 63 quoted by Chase, 2005: 218). In the period between wars, the
discourse that connects “swimming and tanning with health, hygiene
and progress” is consolidated (Chase, 2005: 219). The seasonality of
the water practice maintains, although the traditional Mediterranean
winter season is substituted by the summery attendance. According
to Boyer (1991: 47), the birth of the Mediterranean summer is a 20th
century invention with a predominantly American origin. The new
practices have also become key elements on the construction of social
individual identities. The new uses of water will be maintained
unevenly distributed by the social framework, as it can be observed
on the practices of the élites and of the populace, on the types of bath
(dipping, diving, swimming), the early adoption of the modern
bathing suit and the beaches and thermal sojourns.
The relations with water can also assume other expressions that
are characterized by the absence of direct contact with water, mediated
by activities such as fishing, yachting or rowing. Amateur fishing
with a cane is a masculine, laypeople activity, practiced between June
and September. This activity is often associated to solitude and
silence. Practiced on rivers, in small boats, on riverbanks and brooks,
it becomes allied to particular emotions, particularly associated with
the contemplation of the water, the reverie and some adventures told
to friends and family caused by the mishaps of fishing (Corbin., 1995:
405). During the 19th century, it was perceived as an activity that
combined hygienic, therapeutic and moral virtues – maritime breeze,
tranquillity, getaway from the taverns populace and illicit pleasures.
From the beginning of the 19th century, a new trend of sportive
fishing appears in England. This trend is inserted on the set of sports
practiced by the gentry, demanding a more sophisticate equipment
and insisting on the dexterity and on the elegance of the gesture, thus,
seeking for agitated waters and movement which contrasts with the
inertia and passivity of the traditional fishing. The activities of
yachting and rowing contribute to similar transformations. Besides,
these new practices, which are initially part of the élite, stimulate the
creation of new clubs and associations, the organization of
competitions and the edition of specialized publications, which
describe the virtues of physical exercise, making recommendations,
22 WATER AND TOURISM
etc. At the beginning of the 20th century, the new model socially
spreads throughout Europe, giving origin to numerous sportive
associations. These and other sports, such as mountain trekking, have
developed between 1880 and 1930 under the British influence,
connected to a new hedonistic moral that values the body and
physical exercise, allowing for the discovery of new sensations with
the water and landscapes (Lavenir, 1999: 287).
Modern tourism was born between the end of the 19th century
and the WWII, owning its existence to the discovery of the body and
to the overcoming of the fear of the sea and mountains, to the
elaboration of a hedonistic moral which privileges outdoor living and
body exhibition to unrestricted eyes. The democratization of the
access to tourism has developed touristic amenities, which in turn has
reduced, and even abolished, the possibility of contemplation, of the
direct contact with nature. The therapeutic project has led to sea baths
and to the disappearance of maritime contemplation, in subordination
to entertainment. On the other hand, the ecologic paradigm has
developed a new sensibility on the relation with nature. Changes led
to the appearance of new criteria of choice by some tourists, namely a
greater importance attributed to environmental ‘cleanness’ and the
‘untouched’ characteristics of a place in relation to the leisure
provisions (Hassan, 203: 243). A return to forms of tourism in “search
of existential realities, to be discovered in the realm of Nature that
still had retained some bliss of solitude, sought what was sublime
was beautiful, savage and sombre” (Singh, 2004: 4).
Coastal environments are the most obvious place to look for the
interactions of water and tourism. On the one hand it is here, in a
relatively narrow strip of land that the vast majority of people live,
creating enormous pressures on resources, namely on water
resources. On the other hand, mass tourism associated with the sea,
sun and sand does not show signs of decreasing. The Mediterranean
has been for decades the largest tourism destination region in the
world (UNWTO, 2010), and what is known as the balearisation
process, a particular type of rapid and unplanned tourism and urban
growth coined in the Balearic Islands, Spain during the 1960s, has
produced and still produces in various degrees, disruptions at
environment, economic, social and cultural dimensions (Bossevain
and Selwyn, 2009).
Waterscapes are nowadays accessible for the tourist utilization of
much more people than they were in the past. Within most of the
western world, the sea, sun and sand do not create new sensations
anymore, or a new relation of the body with nature. It is necessary to
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 23
invent new activities that will give place to the experience and
affirmation of the self. Partly because of that, people have new forms
of living and enjoying waterscapes.
Changes in transport and technology are undoubtedly some of
the most important innovations that have affected tourism from the
late 20th century, and particularly tourism in water environments.
One of the most concrete aspects of these changes is the easier access
to remote areas by a larger number of people: river journeys,
whitewater rafting, seakayaking or sailing in the White Nile, the
Mekong or Svalbard, is no longer only for adventurers (see Buckley,
2006). Improvements in telecommunication equipment, especially
satellite technology and coverage, and its easy and widespread
access, has also allowed for the expansion of tourism, namely yacht
tourism, and the growth in the number of people that venture into
faraway waters. The number of people who sail and live aboard
yachts and vessels has also been increasing in the past years
(Jennings, 2003). Technology advances in kayaking, especially in
engineering and design, has allowed for more extreme paddling, such
as waterfall descends, opening up remote areas to special interest
groups. If some of these areas and activities are still the realm of
experts, changes usually follow (access roads, accommodation facilities,
and so on). At the same time, as Smedley (1995) demonstrated,
advances in technology have also improved and widen the groups of
people that can participate in water based activities and tourism:
adapted kayaks are now used by disabled and physically handicapped
groups.
Advances in navigation technology and undersea exploration
have also contributed to the tourist ‘conquest’ of remote geographical
areas and to the emergence of new forms of experience of
waterscapes. Especially important was the invention of scuba (self-
contained underwater breathing apparatus). Scuba broke new ground
for the tourist exploitation of the underwater world. Before the
invention of scuba, underwater environments were mysterious and
remained roughly unexplored (Orams, 1999). Thanks to scuba, the
underwater world could be finally opened up to submarine sport and
revealed to the eyes of millions of people around the world
throughout photo reports and documentaries, being thus gradually
integrated in the geography of tourism. The other face of the coin is
that access to scuba, snorkelling and free diving sites has increasingly
created new environmental issues (Dimmock, 2007).
Originally created for military purposes, the submarines have
been one other medium for the unveiling of the underwater
24 WATER AND TOURISM
environments and their use by tourism. Although they are pioneering
experiences, in a very early stage of development, we already have
nowadays, in various parts of the world, companies that offer day-
trips aboard submersibles. Atlantis Submarines Inc. was the first
company using commercially the submarine technology in the field of
tourism (Orams, 1999). The company began to explore one submersible
in Hawaii in the 1980s. The idea has proved so successful that the
company now offers underwater trips in several destinations,
operating more than a dozen submersibles in the Caribbean islands
and Hawaii. In its first 10 years of activity, Atlantis Submarines Inc.
received more than 4.5 million tourists and realized a total of about
200,000 dives (Orams, 1999: 19). Symptomatic of this fascination of
people and tourists with the underwater world is the growth and
development of various underwater hotels, where innovation in
engineering and architecture allows tourists to sleep next to sharks
and to have a shower in the hotel room while looking and scenes that
could only be seen before in movies or in aquariums. Poseidon
Undersea Resort in the Fiji Islands, scheduled to open in 2010, is a
good example of the mix of sci-fi, water fascination, tourism, and
mega tourism projects.
At the same time as large, unsustainable projects emerge in many
parts of the world, the growth of environmental concerns is also
being felt in the tourist experience and consumption of aquatic
environments. The wetlands, coastlines and seas have become, in the
last few decades, a focus of great attention for tourists who are
interested in bird and cetacean watch. As a result, many regions in
different parts of the world have specialized in these tourist products.
The whale-watching tourism, particularly, has turned into an
industry of great success. Observation currently takes place from a
large range of vessels including cruise ships, sail boats and sea-
kayaking. Whale-watching is estimated to be present in over 65
countries around the world, attracting upwards of 5 million tourists
each year (Orams, 1999: 27).
3. Environmental issues relating to the tourism consumption of water
and waterscapes: a brief overview
Knowledge related to the impacts of tourism on water resources
is still scarce, and rarely there is a distinction between domestic water
use and water for tourism. In fact, “Few countries know how much
water is being used and for what purposes, the quantity and quality
of water that is available and that can be withdrawn without serious
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 25
environmental consequences and how much is being invested in
water management and infrastructure” (UNESCO, 2009: 17-18). Thus,
there is still a long way to understand measure, plan and achieve
sustainable values when it comes to the concepts of ‘virtual water’
and ‘water footprints’. Obviously that when we consider that the
growth of surf tourism implies the manufacture and consumption of
a whole range of products and services related to this industry
(magazines, surf boards, the whole range of fashion components from
clothes to equipment), the environmental impacts cannot be reduced
to the consumption spaces.
Tourism is highly seasonal, and in many places around the globe
peaks occur at the same time as the dry season and at the low points
of hydropower production. These also commonly coincide with the
times when agriculture needs large quantities of water (see Cavaco on
this volume). In fact, a great number of important tourism
destinations are located in areas where future conflicts over water
supply are highly likely, if not inevitable. Around the Mediterranean
Sea, seasonal water demands from the tourism industry increase by
an estimated 5%-20% per annum (UNESCO, 2009: 117-118). Yet, daily
demands can increase sharply in peak season, bringing many places
to unsustainable levels. The consumption of water per tourist varies
widely, and may range from 100 to 2,000 litres per capita per day,
being infrequently higher than that spent by the local population
(Gössling, 2001; Garcia and Servera, 2003). Resorts and tourism
destinations must be re-accessed, not only in their location and scale,
but also in their design. A case study from Zanzibar shows that as
much as 50% of water consumption in related to watering gardens
(Gössling, 2001), which, together with swimming pools, account for
the majority of water spending in resorts.
One of the leisure activities that is clearly connected to tourism and
property development, that implies extensive soil use, that is growing
sharply throughout the developed and developing world, and that
generates bitter discussions in relation to its use of water (also its use of
phytopharmaceuticals, fertilisers and energy consumption) is golf. One
of the critical aspects here is that golf developments are taking place
in locations where water supply is already an issue. In the USA for
example, not only large quantities of water is taken from lakes,
streams and aquifers annually to keep fairways green (Walsh, 2004),
but new golf course development is booming in areas where water
availability problems are already common, such as Florida,
California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. The golf industry and large
resort companies are aware of criticism made to their massive scale
26 WATER AND TOURISM
and resource consumption, and consequently have been adopting
environmentally friendly practises, which range from low density
construction, micro energy generation, and a highly elaborated
discourse and promotion based on the sustainable nature of their
projects. Often golf courses are advertised as being totally maintained
on recycled waste water. Nevertheless, the pressure and demand for
ground water has led in some cases to lower coastal water tables
leading to seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers (Burak, Dogan and
Gazioglu, 2004; see also Cavaco on examples from the Algarve,
Portugal, on this volume). The design of golf courses must change
together with people’s perceptions of what a golf course is, allowing
for narrower fairways and introducing browner patches in order to
reduce irrigation needs. On a positive note we should stress that in
many destinations, the seasonal patterns of golf tourism demand is on
a counter-cycle to that of the ‘sun, sea and sand’ tourism. In the
Algarve (south of Portugal), for instance, the golf peak season is in
March and October.
One other leisure activity that goes hand in hand with the
development of winter tourism and often with great consumption of
water, is skiing. Due mostly to climate change, natural conditions are
becoming less than optimal for skiing in many places, and therefore
there has been a tendency for building second generation ski resorts
at a higher altitude due to lower levels of snowing (Switzerland and
Austria being the best examples), an increase of snowmaking in older
ski resorts, which allows for ski areas to open earlier and close later
(particularly in US ski resorts). Snowmaking functions in a similar
mode to irrigation systems of golf courses (Jones, Scott and Gössling,
2006). It requires a water reservoir, a distribution network of piping
and pumps, and numerous nozzles or guns to spread the snow over
the slopes, and it implies a high energy spending (Scott, 2006). Slope
change and land contouring has also occurred at some ski resorts.
The global growth of tourism and the ever increasing
establishment of new resorts in regions with water scarcity, has led to
the widespread use of desalinisation treatment plants in various
resorts (see Ferreira in this volume). These plants carry a heavy
consumption of energy and produce inadequate discharges of
pollutants often into the sea. Recent technological advances on
wastewater reclamation (using the same reverse osmosis as seawater
desalination), if accompanied by a wide public acceptance, can offer
interesting solutions for tourism resorts (Brissaud, 2010). Yet, there
are many examples worldwide of severe inequalities between resorts
which have ‘unlimited’ fresh water in pools and gold courses due to
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 27
desalinisation treatment plants, and local populations who lack fresh
water for the most basic daily needs (see Sarmento 2009 for an
example in Cape Verde).
Environmental impacts of tourism on the hydrosphere include
other dimensions beyond the problems involved in the consumption
of freshwater. Water pollution and the devastation of aquatic and
coastlines ecosystems are the most critical. The cruise industry is
nowadays amongst the major sources of ocean pollution. This is,
indeed, one of the tourism segments which has grew at a higher rate
in the last few decades. It is estimated that the cruise demand has
increased about 1700% since 1970 only in the U.S., the world’s largest
market in this segment (Ferreira, 2009: 138). The worldwide cruise
fleet has been increasing both in number and in size from decade to
decade. In their early days, cruise ships could accommodate 750 to
1000 passengers, but new vessels are progressively taking on larger
proportions. By the late 1990s, new cruise ships launched by Carnival,
Royal Caribbean and Cunard could host more than 3,300 passengers,
and more recently, in the first decade of the 21st century, some giant
cruise ships with capacity for 7,000 passengers and over 2,000 crew
members have appeared (Ferreira, 2009).
The cruise industry is far from being an eco-friendly tourism
activity. Firstly, cruise is an energy-intensive activity, with very high
consumption of fossil energy and very high CO2 emissions. A ship, on
average, releases 712 kg of CO2 per kilometre, which means that the
carbon footprint of a cruise passenger is 36 times grater that of a
Eurostar passenger and more than three times that of someone
travelling on a standard Boeing 747 (Klein, 2009: 2). Besides that, a
middle-sized cruise ship on a one week voyage with 2,200 passengers
and 800 crewmembers is estimated to produce up to 795,000 litres of
black water (waste from ship toilets), 3,785 thousands litres of gray
water (water from sinks, baths, showers, laundry, and galleys), eight
tons of garbage, circa 500 litres of hazardous waste, and approximately
95,000 litres of oily bilge water (Klein, 2009: 2). Black water is
normally filtered, being the liquid component discharged directly
into the ocean and the swage sludge incinerated or dumped off the
shore. The gray water and the oily bilge water are more frequently
collected in a holding tank and discharged, through a screen that
filters out plastics, when a ship is some miles from shore. Gray water,
however, is able to cause adverse environmental effects because of
concentrations of nutrients and other oxygen-demanding materials,
and oily bilge water may produce damages on marine life due to the
presence of chemicals.
28 WATER AND TOURISM
Motorboating and personal motorized watercraft use also grew
rather rapidly in the last few decades. The emergence of motorized
water sports as a rising tourism activity brought some threats for the
water quality and the equilibrium of estuarine, marine and lake
ecosystems as well. A large range of environmental impacts can be
mentioned (see Richins, 2007). Firstly, there are physical effects.
Motorized water sports may heighten the erosion of coastline and
riverbanks due to the high speed of watercraft, since it provokes
water turbulence and waves (Richins, 2007). Water turbulence
motivated by jets and propellers also affects the biology of aquatic
environments, as well as the noise has been found to be a trouble to
wildlife, specifically bird life. Secondly, we have biological and
chemical impacts of the boat engine emissions and other toxic
substances released during the watercraft utilization. These substances
may contaminate the water, affecting the biodiversity and even the
human health (Richins, 2007).
4. Looking for sustainability in the tourism-water relationship: the goal
and scope of the book
The year of 2010 seems to be the appropriate time to publish in
Portugal a book on water and tourism, since the country is registering
major landscape changes in three fronts, all directly or indirectly
related to water and tourism. Firstly, the coastal dynamics on the
mainland are creating problems to beach users (with various deadly
accidents in the Algarve in 2010 due to slope collapse), to businesses
(various bars and restaurants were washed away by the sea
throughout the winter) and to permanent and second residents
(under the Management Plan of Coastal Areas of 2007-2013, several
houses have been and are being demolished in an attempt to spatially
organise the littoral), at the same time as various coastal municipalities
have been investing heavily in creating better leisure infrastructures
and mobility (namely wooden walks along sand dunes and new
pedestrian accesses to beaches). Secondly, the water levels at
Alqueva, in Alentejo – presently the largest European artificial lake
with over 1000 kilometres of shores – have just reached their
maximum, creating new opportunities for tourism development and
threats to environmental sustainability, in a region that has been in
economic and demographic decline for the past three or four decades
(see Cavaco on this volume). Thirdly, the mega project for building
ten new large dams in the country has been presented in 2010, and
during the next decade deep changes as well as new opportunities
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 29
will emerge in inland regions. This ‘grandiose’ water control phase,
dividing environmentalists, economists and engineers, will certainly
attract tourists to the ‘back regions’, to the newly created lakes,
bringing new life to marginalised towns and villages, but also
creating pressures on relatively undisturbed spaces and will demand
new regulations and planning in order to avoid conflicts between
multiple users and various environmental impacts related to
increasing visitation numbers.
The challenges resulting from the meeting of water with tourism
are enormous. If on the one hand water is increasingly a scarce resource
at a global scale, on the other hand tourism relentlessly continues to
grow, bringing in many cases important economic benefits, but also
carrying with it significant impacts on water resources. This book
intends to engage in the discussion of the water and tourism meeting,
from the perspectives of spatial planning, water consumption and
tourism management, and regarding different practices and discourses
that frame waterscapes. Various chapters from different contributors
will explore these complex interdependencies.
Ana Sampaio debates the importance of sustainable management
of Marine Protected Areas at two different levels: the need to achieve
biodiversity conservation and the critical role that sustainable tourism
may have in this achievement. While arguing that there is a need to
establish a deeper dialogue between the establishment and
management of Marine Protected Areas and populations, the author
also claims that there is a dearth of studies on the impacts of
sustainable tourism on Marine Protected Areas.
Diana Almeida, departing from the assertion that ‘people have a
natural disposition to be in waterfronts, near water elements’,
discusses the dynamics of the relationship between ports and cities.
In analyzing the contemporary trends in waterfront redevelopment,
she highlights the importance of tourism and leisure activities as
redefining dimensions of these spaces.
Following similar concerns regarding post-industrial port cities,
Ana Gonçalves discusses in some detail the waterfront redevelopment
case of Cardiff in Wales. She points to the profound and spectacular
urban and social transformation and regeneration of this space,
creating a new visibility of the city at both national and international
levels. The chapter not only illustrates the postmodern reinvention of
the city, which triggered tourism growth in a close relationship with
water environments, but equally highlights the inequalities that are
embedded in many of these redevelopment processes, and the gap
between them and truly inclusive cities.
30 WATER AND TOURISM
Jorge Mangorinha and Helena Pinto focus on the ways in which the
thermal heritage of two cities is being used in urban planning and
development strategies. By reviewing the most recent strategic urban
projects in Chaves and Caldas da Rainha, cities located in northern
and central Portugal, respectively, they present a comparative
analysis of the relationship between water, cities and thermal heritage.
Eduardo M. S. Ferreira discusses the challenges of developing
tourism in water scarce Qatar. Not only this small country located in
the Gulf region has become a major global transport hub in the last
years, but it is investing heavily in tourism infrastructure, aiming to
be one of the world leaders in the hosting of sports’ events. While the
recent economic success has been translated into population growth
and in increasing pressures on natural resources, namely on water,
and the author explains, the growth of tourism is creating further
threats.
La Vergne Lehmann also focuses on tourism development and
water scarcity, and looks in particular to management practices in the
tourism accommodation sector. The chapter presents and discusses
the results of a survey with tourism accommodation operators in two
dry land regions of Western Victoria, Australia, and attempts to
identify and understand the motivations behind the people who have
taken actions to implement good water management practices.
Claudete Moreira and Norberto Santos discuss the importance of
river tourism in Portugal, presenting an overall view of the country’s
potential and mapping of activities already in place. Details of
white water activities such as canoeing, canyoning, rafting and
hydrospeeding are provided. A particularly important note is made
on the launching of a national program for the regeneration of rivers
(on similar lines to those existent for urban areas and their
waterfronts), which despite being limited to the estuaries of four
rivers (Douro, Vouga, Mondego and Tejo), could signal a stronger
awareness by politicians and planners to water courses and a further
step in the tourism development of Portuguese rivers.
Raimundo Quintal looks at the cultural landscapes of Madeira
Island, Portugal, and in particular to the historical construction and
management of a long system of irrigation channels (levadas) that
crisscross the island. These levadas are part of the dynamics of the
islands’ agricultural and agrarian landscapes and presently have an
enormous potential in the development of walking tourism. For the
success of this enterprise, the author argues, these landscapes and
material and symbolic heritage must be managed as an ethnographic
resource.
WHEN WATER MEETS TOURISM: AN INTRODUCTION 31
Sara Albino presents a study on Surf Tourism in Portugal,
focusing especially on the discourses of surfers and politicians in the
coastal town of Peniche, which has branded itself as the ‘capital of the
wave’. Based on first hand observation and local interviews, the
chapter reviews the surf industry idiosyncrasies while questioning
the sustainability of this type of sports tourism in Peniche.
Xosé M. Santos Solla establishes a dialogue between tourism and
rain, which unlike the sun, the wind, the cold or the heat, is generally
perceived as a negative aspect of tourism destinations. The chapter
reviews some of the main characteristics of tourism in Galicia, Spain,
indicating that tourism planning and tourist authorities have not
adapted their actions to the wet climate of the region. Therefore it is
here argued that rain should be valorised per se, and tourism
products should be constructed around it. To these practices, a
complete change in mentalities should take place, which perceives
rain as a positive element, and where stormy seas can be viewed with
pleasure.
Finally, Carminda Cavaco offers an insightful and broad approach
to the importance of water as a precious resource that should be used
with ethical, social and environmental responsibility. The author
highlights the conspicuous growth of tourism, and the consequences
of tourism development on agriculture. Using a wealthy range of
international examples, the chapter engages also with various
challenging situations in Portugal where water meets tourism.
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