Converting Impact Investments into new Market Shares – let Water Innovation be your guide!

Contact me for a meeting at IBTM Barcelona!

The tourism and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) sectors need innovative water solutions to secure future business and save on costs for resources. Why not turn the impact investments into a new way of story-telling and offerings to visitors?

On an urban, regional or national basis it might seem at odds to focus the strategy on tourism with it's massive water consumption and at the same time needing to secure its water resources for the future and the local communities.

However, by bringing tourism and water management into dialogue, a powerful synergy emerges: tourism can become a valuable ambassador for water conservation and become it is a best practise for cross-sectoral approach in destination marketing.

Water issues affect us all—sometimes there’s too much, sometimes too little, and sometimes it’s too polluted or unevenly distributed. We all see the reports on water-related disasters, like the murderous recent floods in Spain, where many of us are traveling to attend IBTM in Barcelona. It’s time to act, and both the water and tourism industries offer plenty of opportunities to collaborate and create solutions.

Water sector topics are complex and often unfamiliar to those outside the water industry. Around the world, efforts are underway to tackle water crises, from technical innovations to nature-based solutions like river restoration and constructed wetlands, which are great stories in themselves. Yet, what’s often missing is effective communication to foster understanding and support for these transformations.

To encourage a shift in thinking among the public, policymakers, and key economic sectors like tourism, it’s essential to share the “world of water” in all its diversity and importance. Here are a few ways "water" as topic can be woven into tourism:

• Accessible Technology and Innovation for Water Conservation: The latest technologies and digital tools for water conservation in hotels, venues, airports, and harbors should be made accessible to guests and the industry.
• Experiential Water Events: Conferences and festivals focused on water create immersive experiences that bring together visitors and locals through active engagement.
• Legacy Projects in Water Conservation: Conservation projects like mangrove restoration, constructed wetlands, and traditional water management practices can leave a lasting impact if wisely integrated into tourism offerings.
• Resilience Programs for Tourism Destinations: In areas with high summer tourism, resilience programs addressing heat and natural disasters should become an essential part of the tourism offering.
• Partnerships for Innovation and Start-up Funding: Collaboration and new funding opportunities pave the way for exciting, forward-thinking projects.

Water and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 14: Life Below Water) are valuable communication points for sustainability in tourism. They open up smart avenues for interaction, experiences, and protection of local communities.

An important part of this transformation in tourism and MICE is digitalization. It’s essential for understanding complex topics like water management and implementing sustainable strategies. Data and digital channels need to be thoughtfully connected to save resources and seamlessly link information, marketing, personalized experiences, and societal and political strategies.

I hope these thoughts can highlight some of the opportunities that emerge when water and tourism topics are combined, showing how tourism can become an active partner in water conservation.

Contact me for a meeting at IBTM: FrauBlau, Johanna Fischer, [email protected] or via LinkedIn

NEWS and BEST PRACTISE

Happy and proud to announce the First Ever Oman Water & Tourism Forum, in association with the Oman Water Week in Mascat, Oman, April 8/9, 2025.

??The inaugural international Water & Tourism Forum is a pioneering event—introducing a format that uniquely integrates water sustainability with tourism on a cross-sectoral scale for the first time. This unprecedented formate brings together water-industry leaders to explore novel ways of preserving water resources within the tourism sector, addressing challenges and opportunities that have not been tackled in a similar setting before.

??The Water & Tourism Forum aims to become a platform for making tourism development - in Oman and other arid areas - to become a driving force for sustainable water management and to secure the future of tourism.

The conference is jointly organized by FrauBlau and G-Tour Travel & Events, both Germany, in association with Raya Service, Oman.

More information: https://waterandtourismforum.com/ and here on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/showcase/105413045/

Speak to me for Sponsoring and Speaking/Presentation opportunities: [email protected] or on LinkedIn

This new event is all about digital transformation of Water Management, Technology, Governance, Academic and Communication - proud to announce WaterXChange in Freiburg, Germany, November 2025

https://www.waterxchange.net/ and on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/showcase/105083242/

As part of the advisory board and community manager of Water X-Change I encourage all my contacts from the Water Sector to check the information and to participate in this unique event - as a delegate or as a sponsor /speaker or partner.

We also build a digital community parallelly to the preparation and conceptualising of the Expo/Conference and you have a unique opportunitiy here for year-round exchange between all interested parties and shape the conference next year with your engagement.

Join the community if you are interested in the digital transformation of the Water Sector and the Water /Energy Nexus. Click on image below.

Protecting Water and Saving Chemicals (and money) in Hotels

Hotels, venues, companies and organizations must purchase products for cleaning and disinfecting their offices, workplaces and facilities, and to use in their production processes. Most still purchase synthetically manufactured chemicals which must be questioned in terms of carbon footprint levels in the manufacturing process, transport / distribution, and use of plastic. Looking beyond the carbon footprint, we are mainly interested in water safety and water footprint and this is where a sensational invention comes into play, made by Rúni Nielsen from the Faroe Islands. Read what ECA Water can do here!

Let us meet if you are interested to introduce ECA water based cleaning methods in hotels or venues!

https://www.frau-blau.com/demand-management/replacing-chemicals-in-hotels-protecting-water/

Did you Know? I hope it does not apply to you :-)

IBTM News in brief:

For hotels with a focus on sustainable development, certified or not, let us meet and discuss how your focus on water can be sharpened. We have great, easy and impactful solutions for you.

I have published an article on sustainable hotels here:

https://www.tmf-dialogue.net/water-in-hotel-certification-only-a-first-step-towards-the-sustainable-development-of-water-governance-in-islands.html

• For destinations (particularly those from arid regions) - let us talk about partnerships and collaboration for conferences to share best practise and cross-sector work experiences - Water is very suitable for collaboration between different sectors, strategies and industries.
• We have partnership opportunities for the conference in Oman (see above)

Safe travel and see you in Barcelona!