The Girona tourist apartment sector is “concerned” about the impact that the measures announced by the Generalitat to deal with the drought may have on foreign tourists and on the image of the destination outside the country.
They fear that this will result in a decrease in visitors from other countries, who in summer are the main client of this type of tourist accommodation on the Costa Brava. A total of 16 coastal towns are in an emergency phase, which means, among other things, that swimming pools can only be filled with seawater.
A situation that will force entrepreneurs to make powerful investments to adapt their facilities to this type of water with very little margin. The owners of tourist apartments are asking for specific lines of aid to make the development of one of the country’s main economic sectors compatible with the current drought context.
The sector is critical of the Government, whom it accuses of having done “poor management” in this entire drought crisis. Among other houses, they demand “urgent solutions” to water losses due to the poor condition of the pipes. It is estimated that one in four liters, 25% of the water, is lost. The entity affirms that this fact shows that the Generalitat has not done its job in maintaining and improving the water network.
On the other hand, the Costa Brava-Pyrenean Apartments Tourist Association of Girona demands from the Government, as some professional colleges and various voices in the tourism sector have already proposed, the crossing of the Ebro river.
The association does not understand how in an emergency situation like the current one, network interconnection policies are not applied. “We are seeing how the Ter is drying up to bring water to Barcelona, ??but the Ebro is not touched even though it has sufficient flow to face the emergency situation in which we find ourselves,” the entity explains in a statement. .
The ATA emphasizes that it has been working for some time to improve the management of water resources by investing in water reuse measures, establishing use control systems and reducing consumption in visitor awareness campaigns.
In 2035, the sector aims to equate the water consumption of a tourist with that of a resident, as established by the Generalitat’s National Commitment to Responsible Tourism in one of its points.
