Decoupling Analysis of Water Consumption and Economic Growth in Tourism in Arid Areas: Case of Xinjiang, China

In recent years, the rapid development of tourism in China's arid areas has led to a continuous increase in water consumption, heightening the tension between water supply and demand in the region. For this reason, drought-type tourist destinations require a method for estimating the tourism water demand and analyzing the sustainable state of water resources. Existing studies focus on the impact of tourism development on the water resources and environment of tourist destinations. However, few scholars have paid attention to whether tourism development is decoupled from the tourism water footprint. Using an analysis of the tourism water footprint based on the TWF-LCA model and Tapio decoupling theory, this study investigates the relationship between the tourism water footprint and tourism economic growth in Xinjiang from 2003 to 2021. The results show that from 2003 to 2021, the water consumption footprint of the tourism industry in Xinjiang was generally on the rise, and the virtual water consumption of tourists was 3.5 times that of direct water consumption. S-WF is the largest contributor to the total TWF, accounting for 46.13% on average, followed by C-WF, V-WF, Tr-WF, and finally, A-WF, which has the smallest share (less than 5%). The decoupling model shows that, in most years, the tourism water consumption and economy have been in a weak decoupling state, and the growth rate of the tourism water footprint is smaller than the growth rate of the tourism economy. However, in 2007 and 2016, the two were in an expansionary negative decoupling state, that is, the growth rate of the tourism water footprint was greater than the growth rate of the tourism economy. In 2008 and 2019, they were in a weak negative decoupling state, that is, the decline rate of the tourism water footprint was less than the tourism economic recession rate. In 2013, the growth rate of the tourism economy and tourism water footprint declined. Our analysis enriches the literature on tourists' WF and the impact of tourism activities on water resources, providing a reference for estimating the WF of drought-type tourism and analyzing the sustainability of tourism water resources.