Capri battles water emergency as it prepares to allow tourists back

MILAN (Reuters) - Tourists who have booked a hotel on Capri will be allowed back onto the Italian island as the local administration works to secure water supplies after damage to the aqueduct on the mainland deprived it of running water.

"We're preparing a less restrictive new order to allow back residents, people who own second homes, which often have their own water tank, and tourists with a hotel booking. It will be the hotels' responsibility to ensure they have water," Capri mayor Paolo Falco told Italian news programme TGCOM24.

Earlier on Saturday Falco had issued an order that halted tourist arrivals after some pipes that burst in the coastal town of Castellammare di Stabia left Capri residents without water.

"We've been working through the night to ... secure water shipments and tankers carrying water, which have been arriving. I apologise to everyone but there was nothing I could do ... my priority had to be to prevent a healthcare emergency," he added.

In May and June, Capri was the most popular Italian destination among foreign tourists, who accounted for 84% of total visitors to the country, according to a recent analysis from Lybra Tech, a company that provides tech solutions to hotels, and tax free shopping data firm Global Blue.

Tourists on average spend four days on the island off the coast of Naples, with almost a third of them U.S. nationals.

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Mark Potter)