Tourist attitudes towards water use in the developing world: A comparative analysis

•Tourist attitudes to water use in three developing world destinations.•Tourists' environmental responsibility to water use in home and holiday environments.•Greater commitment to water sustainability at home rather than as tourists.•Water equity issues in destinations unlikely to change holiday choice by tourists.

This paper examines tourists' attitudes towards water use based on comparative data from interviews with tourists in Zanzibar, The Gambia and Dominican Republic. Unsustainable water use, accentuated by climate change, threatens access to water which potentially forms a source of conflict between tourists, tourism businesses, residents and the environment. Additionally it raises issues about rights of access to water. The results emphasise the actual nature and scale of tourist use of water and their lack of awareness of the impacts of this use on the local environment and community. This lack of awareness becomes an added indicator of the growing unsustainability of tourism in certain destinations and needs to be considered alongside the longer-term scenarios of climate change.