Study On Tourism Water Footprint

As scarce strategic resource, fresh water decides the competition ability of a country or region in the future.water footprint can reflect the situation of human utilization of water resources from the aspects of solid water and virtual water, which has significance for the management of water resources utilization in the modern society. Tourism water footprint can measure the total amount of water consumption for tourist products and services in the tourism activities. Tourism water footprint assessment can provides ideas and lessons for the regional water resources assessment and management, sustainable tourism development and tourism management.Supported by the theory of water footprint, in Gossling and Wang Qun tourism water footprint model for reference, combined with the actual situation of Wuhan tourist industry, the thesis aims at establish Wuhan province tourism water footprint model. Wuhan city as a tourist destination, tourism water resources consumption consists mainly of visitors direct water and virtual water of food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment and other tourism activities in the consumption of tourism products and services during traveling in Wuhan. In this paper, through field research, questionnaire survey, literature research and data mining to collect relevant data and materials for calculation and evaluation Wuhan city tourism water footprint, the conclusion is as follows:1.In 2015,the total water footprint of tourism in Wuhan city was 97228.79×104m3, the total water footprint of Wuhan tourism industry showed the largest in September, the smallest in January, the overall trend of the gradual increase with the change of the quarter.2.Tourism transportation, tourism accommodation, tourism dining, tourism sightseeing and tourism shopping accounts for the total amount of water footprint 20.03%,11.64%,37.00%,22.92% and 8.41% respectively. Research results show that: Dining water footprint is the maximum amount, shopping water footprint is the minimum amount.The amount of sightseeing water footprint is larger than accommodation water footprint.3.The mainly Wuhan city tourism water footprint of virtual water is transportation biomass and hydro power energy consumption, tourism dining and shopping food water footprint, the mainly water footprint of solid water is accommodation and sightseeing water footprint. Virtual water and solid water take parts in the total amount of water footprint are 65.44% and 34.56% respectively. Thus, the proportion of virtual water in tourism industry is larger than solid water. According to the water-ecology-social economic complex system theory, Wuhan water resources self-sufficiency rate is relatively high, there is sufficient coordination within the region. But there are interaction between the virtual water and the external area, such as tourism traffic energy consumption and food, which is shown as a kind of inner and outer water footprint.4.In Wuhan tourism transportation water footprint, transportation water footprint outside the region is greater than its inside. Which reflects to the ways of transportation and average distance are important factors influencing transportation water footprint in and outside Wuhan province. The dining water footprint of Wuhan tourism, virtual water footprint is lager than solid water footprint, which is consistent with the fact that human consumption of water is mainly based on virtual water. In sightseeing water footprint, green water consumption is greater than the visitor water consumption, which related with green are and water consumption.5.From the factors and amount of water footprint, there are many factors affecting tourism water footprint, which including the number of visitors, traffic energy, transportation, travel distance, duration of stay, food consumption and purchases, green standards and green areas and so on. But the main and most immediate impact factor is tourists, the number of tourists is profoundly affecting the total amount of water footprint changes.6.The water consumption of Wuhan city tourism makes bigger contribution to GDP than tourism itself. Therefore, Wuhan city tourism development must be the implementation of green development plan, through a variety of strategies and measures to enhance tourism water resources utilization efficiency, strengthen the management of water resources, to promote the Wuhan city sustainable tourism development and urban sustainable water resources and utilization.