International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman

Retrofitting a 3 star hotel as a basis for piloting water minimisation

interventions in the hospitality sector
Kevin Gatt ∗ , Celine Schranz
Department of Spatial Planning and Infrastructure, Faculty for the Built Environment, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The poor state of Malta’s groundwater resources provides clear evidence of the need for different yet
Received 12 March 2014 complementary strategies to secure the long term sustainability of groundwater bodies which have long
Received in revised form 15 June 2015 been abused through increased abstraction for non potable use. In line with the hierarchy for the manage-
Accepted 19 June 2015
ment of natural resources, minimisation plays a significant role as this would guarantee lower abstracted
volumes from groundwater.
Keywords:
This paper outlines the results from a pilot project aimed at retrofitting guestrooms in a 3 star hotel
Water conservation
with low flow aerators and shower heads and with volume displacers in toilet cisterns. Water consumed
Water use in hotels
Water minimisation strategies
before and after the interventions, based on meter readings, the impact retrofits may be established.
Retrofitting of buildings The hypothesis whereby low flow, non interventionist retrofits can achieve significant water savings
at a low cost, without disruption and with a payback period of less than three months, can be tested.
Malta’s tourism industry is sizeable and the largest water consumer from all economic sectors. The results
show that the interventions provide appreciable water savings and can be easily replicated both in other
buildings thereby contributing to a reduced water footprint.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hot summers, mild winters and a limited amount of rainfall in
the Mediterranean have been a cause of water scarcity for many
countries since the 19th century. Population growth and imposed
tourism loads increase the pressure on water yielding aquifers
contributing to a deteriorating situation (Stournaras, 2010). This
problem is accentuated in the southern part of Europe, includ-
ing places like Malta, Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Spain as well as in
the western part of the Middle East, including Israel, Lebanon and
Turkey (Christodoulou, 2010) as well as in parts of Spain, notably
Mallorca (Tortella and Tirado, 2011).
The climate of the Maltese Islands is typically semi-arid Mediter-
ranean, characterized by hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
The water-related consequences of semi-arid climates include
variations in both inter-annual and intra-annual rainfall patterns,
high-intensity and short-duration rainfall events and seasonal
scarcity of precipitation during the peak seasons when water
requirements are highest (Food and Agriculture Organization of
∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: kevin.gatt@um.edu.mt (K. Gatt), celineschranz@gmail.com
(C. Schranz).
the United Nations, 2006). Such scenarios increase the pressures
on groundwater resources, their quality and yield.
Global climate models foresee that, in the near future, rapid fluc-
tuations will occur causing extreme hot temperatures and intense
rainfall events both of which negatively affect water volumes stored
in aquifers. As far as predictions go for the Mediterranean and Malta,
climate change will cause temperatures to increase by up to 2.8 ◦ C,
sea levels to rise by 30 cm and the precipitation to decrease by
around 1.8 – 4.4% by the year 2100 (Micallef and Sammut, 2010).
Some of the most critical effects on the tourism industry, as a
result of climate change, include a reduction of available water due
to excessive abstraction, an increase in potable water demand, an
increase in the contamination of fresh-water bodies, the reduction
in water storage and an increase in water withdrawals (Stournaras,
2010). Most of these consequences are also confirmed in Malta’s
Second National Communication to the UNFCCC (Gatt, 2010) and
will further contribute towards stressing groundwater resources.
Water scarcity in Malta is a reality that few dare contradict.
The total abstraction of groundwater is estimated to be about
34 Mm3 /annum (Malta Resources Authority, 2005). It includes
water extracted by the Water Services Corporation (WSC) and
all legal and illegal unmetered extraction. Such abstraction lev-
els represent 11 Mm3 more than the Malta Resources Authority’s
(MRA) recommendations for sustainable extraction (Food and Agri-
culture Organization (Food and Agriculture Organization of the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.06.008
0278-4319/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
116 K. Gatt, C. Schranz / International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121
United Nations, 2006). Groundwater abstraction for potable sup-
plies amounts to around 14 Mm3 (National Statistics Office, 2009).
This begs the questions as to whether the difference (20 Mm3 )
between estimated total groundwater abstraction (34 Mm3 ) and
WSC metered abstracted water (14 Mm3 ) confirms an unsustain-
able practice that currently prevails.
Aquifer recharge is dependent on the 545.3 mm of average
annual rainfall (NSO, 2012a) which falls on Malta’s limited surface
area of 316 km2 . This recharge potential has been progressively hin-
dered by a high urbanisation rate, which reached 27.7% in 2005
(NSO, 2010) and limited water conservation infrastructure. The
population in Malta in 2011 stood at 416,055 (NSO, 2012b) imply-
ing a population density of 1317 inhabitants/km2 , making it one of
the most populated countries in the world (World Bank, 2012) and
therefore increasing pressures on water resources.
Since the early 1980’s, desalination plants have played a major
role in the production of potable water. In 2011 desalinated water
accounted for 55% of total water production (NSO, 2012a) reinforc-
ing Malta’s dependency on alternative water resources to satisfy
demands for water. This scenario may have caused people to take
water resources for granted and to have limited interest in water
conservation (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, 2006) relying on the ‘topping up’ potential desalination
plants have vis a vis satisfying water demand constraints.
Billed water consumption is the only direct form of consumption
measurement. Potable water is produced and distributed solely by
the WSC, a state owned entity, and all water connections to build-
ings are metered at the point of consumption for billing purposes.
This provides a means to monitor individual client consumption
within buildings. On this basis one notes that whilst 67% of total
consumption is attributed to consumption from within households,
23% of the remaining consumption is taken up by the tourism sec-
tor (NSO, 2009). This metered amount does not include the use
of other water resources, such as groundwater, legally or illegally
abstracted, which is sold to tourism establishments to supplement
potable metered supplies. As there is no abstraction charge for
groundwater, it commands a financial advantage on metered water,
making it an attractive substitute for use in hotels.
Malta’s attracts 1200,000 tourists annually, and rising, which
translates itself into over 7300,000 bed nights (NSO, 2012d, 2013a).
From an economic standpoint, tourism accounts for 11.82% of
Malta’s GDP (NSO, 2013b) as well as a sizeable workforce. Three
star hotels provide the highest number of bed nights per year
(1452,659) when compared to two star hotels (59,341) and other
forms of non-hotel based tourist accommodation (903,127) (NSO,
2012c; NSO, 2012d; NSO, 2013a; NSO, 2013c). Since the income per
bed night from three star and lower rated hotels is lower than that
of top end of the range hotels, every effort is done by these enter-
prises to minimise their capital and recurrent costs to achieve better
profitability levels. This enhances the acceptability of retrofits by
hotel managers.
The hotel chosen for this study had one peculiarity in that it
had no kitchen, laundry or restaurants present in the building
as these activities were subcontracted. The study therefore max-
imised the effect retrofitting could have on water conservation from
guestrooms only. The hotel was constructed forty-one years ago at
a time when the consideration for water conservation was not as
important as it is today. Water consuming devices during that time
were not designed to reduce water consumption and even though
eight years ago there was a change in ownership of the hotel, neces-
sitating a degree of refurbishment, water conservation does not
seem to have been a priority. This made this hotel an ideal target
for retrofitting with the aim of promoting water conservation.
By avoiding the consumption of a resource we not only safe-
guard that resource but we also avoid having to manage the
consequences of its use. To this effect this paper presents the result
of a pilot project carried out in a local 3 star hotel with a view
towards determining the potential that low cost retrofit interven-
tions have to lower water consumption at source.
This makes the hotel industry a prime candidate for explor-
ing the potential of achieving water conservation through simple
retrofits that do not disrupt the operations of the business and
which do not need invasive physical interventions. The pilot project
consisted in the:
• reduction in flushing volumes through a volume displacement
device1 of 1.2 l in a traditional 9 l cistern (see Fig. 1);
• replacement of aerators on taps with proprietary2 ones rated at
4.5 l/min2 ;
• replacement of showerheads with proprietary ones having a rat-
ing of 8 l/min2 .
The metering system present within the hotel facilitated a water
accounting exercise to be undertaken in order to isolate consump-
tion associated with bedroom activity only as well as records to
differentiate between “mains supplied”3 and “imported”4 water.
The success of this pilot would permit low cost, non-intrusive
retro fitting techniques to be promoted as a strategy for water con-
servation in existing medium to low-end hotels.
The concept behind this study was to determine the amount
of water that could be saved through the installation of non-
destructive and inexpensive interventions, affordable to financially
sensitive enterprises due to their short payback period. The
achievement could be used to showcase such initiatives with a view
to replicating it in any other sector or building. The success of this
pilot, and a replication effort, should lead to lower water supply
and groundwater abstraction volumes enabling more water effi-
cient buildings and permitting Malta to move up the water resource
management hierarchy.
2. Literature review
A positive socio-economic impact generally results from growth
in the tourism sector. However, there are also negative envi-
ronmental impacts associated with the considerable volume of
water consumed. Tourism can become an environmental liability
(Steenhuis, 2010) as it is the second highest water consumer after
the domestic sector (NSO, 2009). Such consumption is even more
hard-hitting in water-scarce areas. In hotter and drier climates
like the Mediterranean, water scarcity is of particular concern as
tourists tend to consume more water when on holiday than when
at home, forcing water consumption to reach levels of up to 440 l
per day (UNESCO, 2006; UNEP, 2009; Gossling et al., 2012). Tourism
generally accounts for less than 1% of national water use. However
Gossling et al. (2012) have demonstrated that, in the case of Malta,
this accounts for 7.3%, significantly higher than other tourism based
economies such as Barbados (2.6%) and Cyprus (4.8%) indicating
that “islands with high tourist arrival numbers and limited water
1
A volume displacement device may be a proprietary or vernacular product that
is placed in the flushing mechanism in order to reduce the volume of water that is
flushed to clean a toilet. Its function is to occupy a fixed volume which would have
otherwise been occupied by water which would subsequently be flushed.
2
In the case of the latter two, the new design flow rate was at least half that
which prevailed prior to the new installation. Moreover, each of the three floors of
the hotel was checked to ensure that water pressure was above 1 bar. In fact, the
water pressure ranged from 1.8 bar on the third floor to 2 bar on the first and second
floors.
3
Mains supplied refers to WSC supplied potable water which is billed through
meters installed in all buildings.
4
Imported water refers to water delivered to a building by tankers and which
water is not of potable quality.
 K. Gatt, C. Schranz / International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121
Fig. 1. Proprietary volume displacement device installed in flushing mechanism.
resources are more likely to face water conflicts”. This is corrobo-
rated by Black and King (2009) who identify Malta as a country,
which in view of its tourism industry, “will be chronically short of
water by 2050”. In fact, water consumption in hotels is much higher
than the 80 l per day per capita amount consumed by Maltese res-
idents (Gatt, 1993). This is corroborated by ratios which are more
than double the average local demand in Mallorca (UNEP, 2009) and
three times as much in the case of Barbados (Charara et al., 2011)
another water stressed country. The tourism sector can thus exert
considerable water demands even in regions where water scarcity
is critical as is the case of Morocco where water consumption can
vary from 300 l/bed night in 3 star hotels to 600l/bed night in 5 star
deluxe setups (Alonso-Almeida, 2012). This reflects the prevailing
scenario where economic positioning overrides resource manage-
ment and which, in turn, places increased urgency on measures to
conserve water and to maximise the use of the resource.
Water conservation exercises in the hospitality sector are not
uncommon and their replicability offers potential, irrespective of
the climate in which they are situated. The fact that water conserva-
tion projects are one of the most popular interventions undertaken
by hotels (Scanlon, 2007) offers scope for piloting this initiative
in Malta with a view to provide tangible evidence of their effi-
ciency and effectiveness. Chan (2013) concludes that hotels are
generally giving more importance to such programmes and that
environmental certification constitutes an advertising pull factor
particularly in respect of the social media. Notwithstanding, one
must also appreciate that the tourism industry is a very competitive
one and subject to a great degree of price sensitivity. Hence, water
conservation interventions need to demonstrate cost-effectiveness
for adoption (Yao-Hsu et al., 2013). A common goal of hotels is the
reduction of their environmental impact through small systematic
steps not least in improving their water consumption (Heung and
Pun, 2013). Water conservation was in fact shown to be effectively
achieved by water restrictors installed in guest room showers and
taps in Hong Kong (Heung and Pun, 2013) and in Spain (Barberan
et al., 2013). Furthermore, when it comes to water conservation, the
hotel sector can be seen as an attractive target since hotels tend to
be recognisable and sensitive to public perception (O’Neill et al.,
2002). Green hotels have in fact been found to have an additional
marketing potential (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007).
The Nobility of Nature program run in China by Marriot Inter-
national is committed to reduce water consumption by a total of
117
25% by the year 2017 (Marriott International Inc., 2010). A study on
the water saving potential of selected interventions was conducted
in two Seattle based hotels namely the Westin, an older building,
and the more modern West Coast Grand. The study showed that, in
the case of the Westin, the consumption was approximately 802 l
per day per room during the peak season, taking into consideration
that this hotel has its own in house laundry and restaurant facilities.
The newer Grand, had an approximate consumption of 488 l per day
per room and was equipped with low flow toilet fixtures and no in
house laundry (O’Neill et al., 2002). In essence, the interventions in
these hotels consisted of a combination of replacing older toilets,
showerheads and aerators with more efficient alternatives as well
as other specific interventions related to ice machines, laundries
and dishwashers (O’Neill et al., 2002). For both hotels, the water
saving potential reached around 30% of the prevailing water con-
sumption. Taking into account toilet leaks, savings could have risen
up to 40%. In the case of the Westin, approximately 90% of predicted
savings came from equipment changes whilst, for the Grand, close
to 90% of the projected savings came from behavioural measures
(O’Neill et al., 2002).
Jamaica is another example of a tourist destination where water
conservation measures in hotels have also been applied. Here,
small or medium-sized hotels tend to neglect monitoring their
water consumption. Meade and Gonzalez-Morel (1999) argue that
when hotels take on water conservation strategies they tend to
concentrate mainly on guestrooms using measures such a low-
flow showerheads, water saving toilets, faucet aerators and the
towel-linen program. This was also the case in Jamaica but other
measures such as those to limit dirt in pools, the use of effec-
tive landscaping and rainwater harvesting are also adopted. This
implies that even beyond the scope of the traditional interventions
there could be further ways to save on water volumes used. Meade
and Gonzalez-Morel (1999) continue to report that results showed
that the water consumption was consistently lower after imple-
mentation regardless of the occupancy levels with overall water
consumption reduced by 30%.
In Zaragoza, Barberan et al. (2013) demonstrated that the instal-
lation of taps, bidets and showers with water saving devices
contributes to an overall decrease of 23.3% even though this reduc-
tion was based on the total hotel consumption and not just to the
areas where the retrofits had been undertaken. This value, when
corrected to reflect the retrofitted area went down slightly to 21.5%.
118 K. Gatt, C. Schranz / International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121

The EU Eco-label scheme for tourism accommodation, that came

into force by virtue of Commission Decision 2003/287/EC (EU
Commission, 2003), and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council
eco-certification guidelines (GSTC, 2012) are in themselves further
evidence of the potential of the tourism industry to lead the way
in terms of demonstrated environmental responsibility not least
in the area of water conservation. Similarly, other forms of envi-
ronmental certification seem to be gaining popularity (Priego and
Palacios, 2008) although their effectiveness seems mixed (Cashman
and Moore, 2012). Water conservation programmes in hotels have
often focused on enticing guests to behave in a more water respon-
sible manner (Cashman and Moore, 2012) but this often depends on
how this message is conveyed to guests (Shang et al., 2010). How-
ever Park (2009) argues that programme effectiveness is dependent
on management commitment. of the fact that one of the researchers
Fig. 2. Consumption per capita with and without water savings devices.
had access to the owner of the hotel assisted in securing the nec-
essary commitment to this pilot being undertaken. This shows the
importance of convincing the highest level of management on the
benefits of such programmes and subsequently showcasing the
• provided only accommodation services, having no kitchen,
results to enhance replication.
These case studies reinforce the hypothesis on which the Mal- restaurant or laundry facilities.
tese pilot intervention is based - a means to demonstrate the
effectiveness of minor interventions having low payback periods
Water-pressure tests were performed on each hotel floor in
but high water savings. The similarities in the interventions and
order to confirm that the water pressure was high enough to
context are considerable. However this pilot study was limited
accommodate the low flow aerators and showerheads. A total of
to water conservation from taps, showers and toilets as ancillary
93 aerators, 52 showers and 52 cistern volume displacers were
services such as laundry and dining are subcontracted to third
installed in the 52 rooms of the hotel. The full 104 aerators could
parties. Furthermore, the study focuses on the middle to lower-
not be installed as some faucets were of an age which did not sup-
end tourist market where economic pressures may be harder and
port aerators and it was the project’s philosophy to retro fit only
where investments need to be justified with short payback periods.
without replacement.
Gössling (2001), Smith et al. (2009), O’Neill and Siegelbaum (2002),
Three types of water displacement arrangements were utilised
Antakyali et al. (2008) and Deng and Burnett (2002) have all under-
in toilets. Proprietary bags were found to interfere with the flushing
taken studies on water use in hotels and although different results
mechanism whilst plastic bottles filled with water were insufficient
ensue, there is a trend which supports water use as being a function
to prevent flotation. Thus the displacement was achieved by means
of hotel activities.
of two concrete blocks, an arrangement which although vernacular
Empirical evidence from the Spanish hotel sector compares
in nature, worked out well.
well to the Maltese scenario, reinforcing the nature of the pilot
The consequence of these adjustments led to a shortening of the
project and demonstrating that the favored water conservation
timeline for when the new readings could be compared to a previ-
interventions are those incurring low costs and which can be car-
ously established baseline. Hence for the purpose of this research,
ried out during the hotel’s normal operating hours (González and
the period December 2011–April 2012 was benchmarked against
León, 2001; Molina et al., 2009). These innovations permit an
the corresponding period for the previous year for all three inter-
increased environmental sensitivity and a reduction in costs (Oreja-
ventions whilst the month of November 2011 was benchmarked
Rodríguez and Armas-Cruz, 2012).
with its corresponding month of the previous year for showerheads
One of the challenges which may be a barrier to the installation
and aerators only. As the hotel also supplies other independent out-
of water saving devices in existing buildings is the price of water
lets, deductions of third party consumption was carried out in order
itself. The Water Supply Regulations (Government of Malta, 2012)
to isolate hotel consumption.
stipulate that for non-residential buildings such as hotels the water
tariff shall be:

• D 2.10/m3 for the first 168m3 ; 4. Analysis

• D 2.50/m3 for the quantity between 168m3 and 40,000m3 ;
• D 1.75/m3 for quantities above 40,000m3 .
Therefore, one needs to make a good business case to demon-
strate to hotel owners and managers that the installation of water
saving devices has both a business as well as an environmental case
to be made for. This is supported by Kasim et al. (2014) if business
as usual behavior is to be counteracted.
3. Methodology
The hotel chosen for this study had the following characteristics:
• a three star hotel rating;
• fifty-two bedrooms on three storeys;
Fig. 2 shows the results from before and after the retrofit. At
a glance they demonstrate the significance of water conservation
that has been achieved. Focusing on the 5 month period where the
whole retrofit was functioning, bed night consumption dropped
from 280 l to 146 l, a decrease of 48%. It is also interesting to notice
that the imported groundwater to metered water ratio went from
41:59 to 25:75. Both these figures support a hypothesis that sim-
ple non-destructive retrofits can contribute towards promoting
water savings in buildings. This in turn implies lower pressures on
groundwater bodies as imported and metered water volumes are
reduced. During the 33 months of bed nights available for the hotel
under study, annual average bed nights amounted to 24472. This
implies that, the hotel could potentially be saving up to 3280 m3
of water annually. Groundwater dependency fell 16% from 41% to
25%. Whilst metered water has an approximate groundwater input
 K. Gatt, C. Schranz / International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121
of around 44%, the total groundwater:reverse osmosis5 balance fell
from 67:33 to 58:42. This means that pressures on already strained
groundwater resources may also be alleviated by retrofitting exist-
ing buildings. Thus, of the 3280 m3 of potential savings, split across
the 58:42 divide would imply groundwater and reverse osmosis
volumes of 1902 m3 and 1378 m3 , respectively. The latter would
also represent a CO2 saving of around 300 kg/annum.
The November 2010–2011 comparison gives an indication of the
savings that resulted from the installation of water saving showers
and aerators only. Although it is not scientific to rely on one reading
only, such value would certainly be indicative of whether it repre-
sents the major water savings or whether these result from toilet
flushing. In fact the difference between the November readings
amounted to 121 l per bed night. This means that savings from toi-
lets hovers around the 17% mark with the remaining 83% of savings
resulting from showers and taps.
Micallef (2010) had established that the cost of groundwater
imported via water tanker varied between D 1.50 – D 2.10 per cubic
metre. Therefore, the amount of water saved, converted into its
financial equivalent amounts to between D 7312 (if billed using the
lower water tanker tariff) or D 7840 (using the higher water tanker
tariff) and D 8132 using the WSC rates. This shows that the payback
period for the installation of the water conservation devices which,
in all, totalled D 1047, is indeed very short and below 2 months.
Adopting an investment appraisal approach, with a discount rate
of 3% in line with the latest Malta Government bond coupon rate,
and adopting a 3 year lifetime for the fittings would result in a
Present Value of D 21,129. Adopting a 5 year lifetime would increase
the present value to D 34,857. This demonstrates that such a pilot
has given favourable results for the uptake of similar demand side
management strategies, demonstrating that the investment yields
considerable benefits both financially and resource-wise. Taking an
internal rate of return approach, a return of 1650% would result.
Based on the information supplied from the Collective Accom-
modation Establishments of the NSO for the period January –
December 2012 (NSO, 2012, 2013), the total number of bed nights
in three star hotels amounted to 1452659, representing 18.5% of
the total bed nights during that period. It was therefore thought
interesting to determine, on the basis of this survey, the outcome
on a national scale by projecting the savings achieved in this pilot
to the 3 star hotel population.
Table 1 presents the potential water savings under different
assumed sensitivity scenarios and the savings they may achieve
from guestroom associated consumption on the basis of the 134 l
per bed night achieved from the retrofitted hotel. These water sav-
ings represent a potential saving of between D 110,000 to D 380,000
per annum for the 3 star cluster and between 0.12–0.42% of the
total groundwater abstracted from the mean sea level aquifer annu-
ally. Given that there are 37 three star hotels on the island, and
based on the investment on the hotel under study, the total invest-
ment would represent around D 39,000 and represent an excellent
investment given the savings accrued. It could be the case that
it might even be worthwhile for Government to such devices to
hotels. Although, strictly speaking, a straight line extrapolation to
other categories is not possible, but based on a mid-range scenario
of a water saving of 134 l per bed night within 50% of hotels as appli-
cable to 4-star, 2-star and other collective accommodation, which
together accommodated 4788773 bed nights, this could translate
into a potential saving of a further 320,847 m3 of water annually
thereby raising the total savings from hotels and other accommo-
dation to around 418,176 m3 per annum or the equivalent of 1.2% of
5
Reverse osmosis is a water purification technology which produces potable
water from sea water which is passed through appropriate membranes at high
pressure.
119
total abstraction from groundwater. This also equates to the equiv-
alent of a potential financial injection of around D 800,000 annually
in water savings.
5. Conclusion
This case study demonstrates the potential that minimisation
strategies have and which should be exploited before embarking
upon other strategies which are more capital intensive and which
are focused on augmenting of water resources. One way of reducing
the effects of excessive abstraction is to decrease the water con-
sumption from source in line with a water conservation hierarchy
that places minimisation at the apex of interventions. By adopt-
ing low water consumption devices one can also help to attempt
to create awareness of how such small changes within water con-
suming activities can reduce water consumption in a cost effective
and sustainable manner. This scenario is also applicable to exist-
ing hotels elsewhere where non-destructive interventions would
be more appealing to hotel managers. Furthermore, this principle
can also have the same effects on other existing buildings be they
residential, commercial, industrial or institutional.
Research implications
From this study it was found that savings of up to 134 l per bed
night are possible and achievable with an infrastructure that pays
for itself within a matter of a few months. This should raise the
attractiveness of this proposition to all hotel managers with a view
to creating win–win situations as demonstrated by Kasim et al.
(2014), Tsai et al. (2013) and Porter and Van de Linde (1995). The
nature of the results are also in line with the trend established in
the Seattle, Zaragoza and Jamaica examples and demonstrate, to a
certain extent, the potential universality of such interventions.
Although behavioural patterns in water usage vary according
to hotel rating, the 3-star hotels sit right in the middle of the
collective accommodation to 4-star grouping. Extrapolating the
findings from the 3-star hotel to the 3-star sector was found to
have a potential of saving the equivalent of between 0.12–0.42%
of total groundwater abstraction. By extrapolating the mid-range
value for the 3-star hotel to the collective accommodation – 4-
star grouping, the amount saved could be around 1.2% of total
groundwater abstraction. Notwithstanding, extrapolations to dif-
ferent categories should be verified on the basis of pilots in the
same category.
The advantage of these devices is that they can be implemented
with ease and without disrupting the operations of a hotel. More-
over, they have a high level of replicability and may be installed
in an array of buildings to minimise water consumption further.
They are a practical first step for any institution that wants to
reduce its water consumption immediately but is not ready to spare
significant time or money in the investment. Such small changes
across the entire tourism sector would already be a significant
step contributing towards the reduction in overall water abstrac-
tion levels which are known to reach 36Mm3 per annum (Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2006). Malta’s
Water Resources Review (Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations, 2006) was the preamble of an in-depth study
on water resources in Malta as a basis for future policy design.
And which it quantified industrial water demand at 8% of total
water demand whilst also recognising the slow rate of introduction
of water efficient measures. Although a water minimisation pro-
gramme alone is not envisaged to yield stem the aquifer drawdown
required to bring it to sustainable levels, in line with the provi-
sions of the Water Framework Directive (European Parliament and
Council, 2000), the its potential cannot be underestimated espe-
120 K. Gatt, C. Schranz / International Journal of Hospitality Management 50 (2015) 115–121
Table 1
Potential savings from retrofitted three star hotels (m3 ).
3 Star bed nights 1,427,660 Savings (litres/bed night)
100 (litres/bed night)
% of hotels installing retrofits
30% 43,580
50% 72,633
70% 101,686
cially given the its replication potential. Retrofitting buildings to
ensure that their water consumption is lowered, without lower-
ing the experience they provide user quality of life, contributes
towards the overall goal of the Directive. in that iIt is an action
which promotes the sustainable use of water and the long-term
protection of water resources. In doing so, This whilst it contributes
towards lowering carbon emissions as a result of lower water pro-
duction from energy intensive desalination technology plants and
aas well as towards lowering of abstraction levels from ground-
water. Programmes to retrofit buildings are considered to be in
line with Water Framework Directive definitions of basic as well
as supplementary measures. Malta’s response measures, as iden-
tified in its Water Catchment Management Plan (WCMP) (MEPA
and MRA, 2010), emphasise the importance of piloting projects
on demand side management. This particular case study can form
one of the nuclei from where Malta’s WCMP proposal to increase
the efficiency of water use in the domestic sector may originate. It
also contributes towards other WCMP measures aimed at reduc-
ing groundwater demand. It is also in line with Measure 3.3 of
Malta’s water policy (Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs,
2012) which aims to promote water auditing and conservation
schemes in industry. Moreover, building layouts and better natural
resource management have been identified in the EU’s Adaptation
Strategy (2013) as part of those initiatives which can attract fund-
ing through the Commission’s environmental funding programme
Life+ as outlined in Action 2. The EU Adaptation Strategy suggests
that adaptation is mainstreamed into buildings and efficient water
consuming devices are but one contributor towards this goal. By
targeting buildings, one would also be contributing towards the
Strategy’s Action 7 wherein buildings would become more resilient
to the need of current uptake levels of natural resources. Malta’s
Second Communication to the UNFCCC (Ministry for Resources and
Rural Affairs, 2010) also emphasised the importance of efficiency
in building design as a means to reduce the demand for water.
This research places water resources management issues at the
top of a hierarchy which has minimisation as the most desired
form of natural resource management. Although, often enough, one
tends to think in terms of mitigation measures as a means of solv-
ing identified problems, minimisation strategies should be the first
port of call. These minimisation strategies are not solely applica-
ble to hotel buildings but to all buildings in which people exhibit
typical behaviours such as flushing of toilets and personal hygiene.
Having said this, one pilot is not enough to base one’s future policy
upon. However it is a start which is currently being complemented
by other pilot studies in different building typologies.
Suggestion for future research
Further research is recommended on a wider set of building
typologies in order to determine the impact of retrofits on differ-
ent building uses. Moreover, such research should take into account
measures to determine which water saving device is the most effec-
tive in reducing existing consumption.
134 (litres/bed night) 150 (litres/bed night)
58,397 65,370
97,328 108,949
136,259 152,529
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