Introduction
The tourism industry, particularly in destinations like Cancun, heavily relies on water resources. As Jesús Cuevas, Director of Aqua Forum, a specialized forum on water solutions for the industry, explains: “Water is often taken for granted by many industries, but when it’s scarce or contaminated, it turns into an economic problem, a public health issue, and even a country’s image concern.”
Aqua Forum 2025 in Cancun
This year, Aqua Forum will take place from June 26 to 28 at the Cancun Center. Cancun, not only a gem of Mexican tourism but also a benchmark for water management in high-impact destinations, will host its twelfth edition focusing on water management challenges and solutions for the tourism industry.
Water Management Challenges in Cancun
The hotel sector in the region faces challenges such as intensive water use for pools and common areas, as well as pressure on aquifers and cenotes. During peak season, with over 1.2 million visitors, proper pool treatment becomes a matter of public health and tourism competitiveness.
- Aqua Forum 2025 will present practical cases on how Riviera Maya hotels reduced their water consumption by up to 30% using filtration and reuse systems without compromising guest experience.
- The forum will highlight Cancun’s vulnerability to saltwater intrusion and the importance of adopting technologies for real-time water quality monitoring.
- It will address the lack of standardized data on pool numbers and actual water consumption in Mexico, which complicates the creation of effective public policies.
- Security and sanitation risks are critical challenges, as poor management can turn pools into disease foci or cause fatal accidents due to minor errors like electrical installation failures or insufficient chlorine levels.
- Water wastage remains a common practice deeply concerning the sector, with obsolete habits like constant draining and refilling of pools persisting in places like Cuernavaca or Cancun, where many establishments treat tap water as an infinite resource.
Aqua Forum’s Itinerant Format
Jesús Cuevas explains that Aqua Forum adopts an itinerant format due to the diverse water management realities across Mexico. The forum is carried out in four strategic regions, each with unique challenges:
- Northern region: Focuses on industrial water treatment in areas like Monterrey, addressing high demand from manufacturing sectors and chronic water scarcity.
- Western region: Centers on water resource pressure in tourism destinations like Puerto Vallarta, balancing hotel growth with river and aquifer protection.
- Central region: Discusses over-exploitation of aquifers and outdated infrastructure, particularly in the Greater Mexico City area, where lakes like Texcoco face environmental emergencies due to excessive extraction.
This strategy enables the delivery of tailored solutions to each region while fostering a national knowledge network. The event, which has previously gathered 45 brands and 500 attendees, aims to promote sustainable technology adoption, sector professionalization, and norm compliance.
