Actually, the mayor said he was seeing an uptick in nature tourism because the lowered water levels have brought back native flora and fauna. And Page is not a large town and their water needs can be be presumably met directly by the Colorado river. 🤷🏻‍♂️
It was the superintendent of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area who made that remark; the mayor of Page sounded less sanguine.
"While Diak sees the diminishing lake as “problematic” for his community, faulting decades of over-allocation of water compounded by drought and climate change, he understands the bigger picture."
I've been to these areas several times in the last few years, and I would only caution that this is a difficult time to count tourists, if for no other reason than international travel to the national parks/recreation areas is down significantly and domestic travel has increased during Covid. Prior to 2020, one could easily hear several different languages a day in the area around Page (one of the gas stations in town has instructions on the pump in English, French, and German); I can state from personal experience that this has not been the case there either this year or last.
As I said earlier, I don't know enough about the subject to feel passionate either way (except to emphasize that its scenery is stunning).
More likely is river towns tend to get their water from well which the river feeds. A distinction with a difference. Believe it or not every drop in the Colorado River is spoken for.