The Impacts of Tourism on Potable
Water Supply
An Investigation of the South West Water Region
Abby McMillan
Centre for Sport Leisure and Tourism Showcase, th June 2011, Exeter
• Provides drinking water and waste water services to 1,648,800 customers
in the South West
• Private company owned by Pennon Group
• Regulated industry
• Annual audit called `June Return’
• Periodic Review every five years
Rationale for Studentship
• Develop a deeper understanding of the demand for potable water
generated by tourism within SW England
• With South West Water (SWW), this project will examine the use of
potable water among accommodation providers and visitor attractions in
SW England.
• The second aim is to predict likely water usage using regression models
with historical data of part usage in this important sector
• Part of SWW Water Resource Management Plan which will require a
forecast of likely demand until 2039/40
• Climate effects from the UKCIP09 dataset will be considered to assess the
impact of climate change on tourism and water usage.
Objectives
• Identify current level of, and temporal variations in, demand among
accommodation providers
• Investigate variations in demand based on operating attributes of businesses
(size, grading, whether metered).
• Examine the extent to which climate change has had, or will have, an impact
on water demand in the tourism sector.
• Produce a model of tourism water demand and use this model to forecast
future demand (based on major current sector scenarios).
Methods: Stage 1
• Stage 1: Secondary Analysis by GIS (Objectives 1 and 2)
• A GIS (Geographic Information System) regional database has been
created and has combined:
• Metering data on individual properties thorough postcodes
• Information on size, grading, and other business attributes
• Merged SWW billing data with SWT accommodation provider data
• Will add: Future climate predictions provided by the latest UKCIP09
Methods: Stage 2
• Primary research with tourism enterprises (Objectives 3 and 4)
• Postal survey of 250 businesses
• Follow-up interviews (20-30 businesses)
• Survey will also look at:
– The perceived image of climate change on water use
– Water saving measures , water monitoring, reasons for water management
Tourism and Climate Change Futures
• Plan different scenarios
• Account for longer drier summers
• Extreme weather events
• Higher visitor numbers
• Will higher visitor numbers mean higher water usage or will this be offset
by businesses implementing water efficiency measures?
• Run Climate models
• Surveys of tourism businesses to calibrate models.
Thank you – any questions?
• Research presented here was conducted during an ESRC Studentship
under its Capacity Building Clusters Award
(RES-187-24-0002) in partnership with South West Water
• For more information about this project and the work of the Centre for
Sport, Leisure and Tourism research, see www.ex.ac.uk/slt.
• Contact Abby McMillan on aid201@exeter.ac.uk