Quality of life and tourism

Project description

For many destinations, strengthening tourism as an economic factor in terms of value creation and income generation as well as regional employment promotion plays a central role in strategic destination development. In order to obtain reliable information on the economic importance of tourism in the destination, instruments such as the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) have become increasingly established in destination market research. The growth strategies pursued by many destinations to achieve economic goals were reflected in continuously rising numbers of arrivals and overnight stays before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the fact that economic growth also has limits to its sustainability was demonstrated, among other things, by the intensifying academic, political and media discussions on the topic of “overtourism”. The question increasingly arises as to how sustainable destination development, which takes social and ecological sustainability goals into account alongside economic goals, can be realized in harmony with the local population.

With the growing social demand that the contribution of tourism goes far beyond its economic significance and should also contribute to the quality of life of local people, interest in the local perspective has become the focus of tourism research. The Tourism Acceptance Study was the first comprehensive study to determine the effects of tourism on the local population in their own place of residence. At federal level, a stagnation trend in tourism acceptance has been evident since 2019. In addition, it can be seen that the acceptance of tourism in Germany as a place of residence is (significantly) higher than the acceptance of tourism in person. Consequently, residents recognize tourism as an economic factor for their place of residence, but perceive it less as a driver of their own quality of life.

This raises the following key questions:

• Which factors (economic, ecological, social) influence the perceived quality of life of residents?
• What role do the perceived positive and negative effects of tourism on one’s own place of residence play in the quality of life of residents?
• What influence does the perceived “empowerment” (i.e. the attachment of residents to their place of residence as well as the perceived possibilities and wishes to influence the design of tourism) have on the perceived quality of life?