dossier sur le tourisme et le développement durable

Tourism and the Environment
Figure 18: Tourism pressure on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea in 1997 (number of tourist beds per inhabitant)
Source: Ioannis Spilanis, Laboratory For Local and Island’s Development, University of the Aegean.
1.6. Other impacts on the environment in the destinations: water,
waste, energy
The Mediterranean, whose resources in drinking water are generally modest, is no doubt
more affected than other regions in the world by tourists’ water consumption.
Yet, tourist water consumption in hotels and similar establishments (Annex, Table 20) remains
relatively low compared to other practices such as irrigation. In 2000 it was estimated at 0.5% of
the drinking water demand for the whole of the Mediterranean, 0.6% in France, 1.6% in Greece,
2.3% in Tunisia, 4.4% in Malta and 4.5% in Cyprus. It represents 189 hm 3 per year. Water
consumption is the most striking on the islands.
This assessment, however, does not take into account consumption by other forms of
accommodation such as camp-sites and holiday homes that are numerous in some destinations
of the north-west and north-east Mediterranean. A Plan Bleu assessment in 1994 gave an
overall figure for tourism of 450 hm 3 , 90% of which was in the north of the Mediterranean Basin.
Available data on the visitors in other types of accommodation gives an estimate of the total
51