You own the P&L, not the aquifer: regenerative tourism's wake-up call

Every hotel director signs off on a monthly P&L. Nobody signs off on the aquifer that fills the pools, or on the town that staffs the property in low season. That gap is exactly what the Routledge Handbook on Regenerative Tourism and Hospitality goes after, an academic handbook that pushes an uncomfortable adjustment for the industry: account for natural and community systems before they fail, not after.

The book's argument matters for asset managers. Sustainability reporting usually lands late and reads as damage control, once the aquifer has dropped or the community has had enough. Its authors want that accounting built into daily operations: water use, local footprint, destination carrying capacity.

My take: anyone running revenue at a coastal resort or a city squeezed by tourism should read it. Insurers already ask about water risk and OTAs keep moving on green badges. Whoever has the numbers first can defend rate and social licence. The rest will be selling an asset that's drying up.