An Analysis of Tourism QOL Domains from the Demand Side

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relationship between tourism and quality-of-life from a demand side perspective. Emphasis is placed on various domains of quality-of-life, as identified by numerous authors, but in particular Rahman et al. (Measuring the quality of life across countries. A sensitivity analysis of well-being indices. Research paper No. 2005/06 in World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) established by United Nations University (UNU), 2005), as these were considered to be the most comprehensive and appropriate for this particular study. These include health, work and productivity, material well-being, feeling part of one’s local community, personal safety, quality of environment, emotional well-being and relationship with family and friends. The authors considered each of these domains in turn and analysed their relevance for the demand side of tourism, that is, tourists’ perceptions, motivations and behaviour. It was concluded that tourism contributes to all of the domains, but to some more than others. It was also necessary to adapt or to add to the domains in order to make them more relevant to tourism. Although some forms of tourism tend to be more closely connected to certain domains than others, and it is necessary to extend existing domains from the more general literature, all forms of tourism are affected by all of the domains to a greater or lesser extent. This leads us to conclude that tourism and quality-of-life are inextricably linked, even if tourism tends to be a temporary and irregular activity in our lives. However, it is the act of travel as a social phenomenon rather than individual trips which seem to have an influence on peoples’ quality-of-life.