Towards sustainable tourism: What factors most influence decision makers in water-energy planning?

Tourism is a major activity for some Mediterranean economies. While the growth of tourism over the last few decades has had many positive effects, it has also harmed the environment when this growth has not been planned in a sustainable way. The analysis of influential factors can help in designing advanced planning and management solutions for sustainable tourism in these areas (Chan & Lam, 2010). Such solutions will confer economic, social and environment benefits on both locals and tourists. Tourism has environmental impacts on energy consumption, water consumption, pollution and waste outputs (water quality and air quality). Water and energy are needed to maintain the gardens and landscaping of hotels and attractions and is embodied in tourism infrastructure development, food and fuel production (Bramwell, & Lane, 2012; Pegas and Castley 2014). Within the accommodation sector, private homes, hotels, camp sites and other tourist establishments are the main contributors to energy and water use (Gössling et al., 2012). In particular, the impact of tourism on water availability and water quality is dependent on a wide range of factors, such as the relative abundance and quality of water in the respective tourism region. In order to diminish this negative impact of tourism, a clear way to increase sustainability is to implement a water re-use or desalination system (Stephen, Kent & Newnham, 2004; Chris & Sirakaya, 2006). To this end, an in-depth analysis of the factors that most influence decision makers in water-energy planning is conducted in this study.