01.02.2025 - 31.03.2025
Local Communities, Identity, and Quality of Life as the Foundation for Sustainable Destination Development
Current discussions in tourism research emphasize the central role of the local population in the success of tourist destinations. At the same time, it is becoming clear that conventional metrics used to assess the local impacts of tourism are insufficient to adequately reflect this importance. Studies on tourism acceptance highlight the connections between residents’ attitudes toward tourism, their perceived quality of life, and their sense of local identity.
Identity arises both from a sense of belonging to a place and from elements of conscious distinctiveness. It forms a central foundation for shaping social cohesion, local characteristics, and how tourism developments are managed. A positive perception of quality of life and identity contributes significantly to a culture of hospitality, a willingness to participate, and long-term community development.
The goal of the project is to identify opportunities and measures that strengthen local identity and maintain or improve the quality of life in the community. The focus is deliberately on an inward-looking perspective: Tourism’s success should be in harmony with the needs and expectations of the local population and rest on a stable, socially anchored foundation.
The Maikammer Municipal Association serves as a project partner because its administrative and settlement structures provide a particularly suitable field of study. The municipalities within the association exhibit varying patterns of tourism development, which allows for a nuanced examination of local identity and acceptance patterns. This heterogeneity creates ideal conditions for systematically analyzing the relationships between tourism dynamics, quality of life, and identity, and for deriving insights that can be applied to other regions.
