The relationship between responsible tourism practice, destination sustainability and quality of life: Perspective of Marine National Park communities

Abstract

An ideal responsible tourism practice has become the most significant role and principle for modern sustainable tourism development concept. Responsible tourism practice promotes better for tourists visit and enhances the quality of life of host communities in the destination by encouraging ethical consumption and production in all stakeholders. This paper attempted to determine the impact of host communities’ perceived responsible tourism practice on perceived destination sustainability and their quality of life as well as the impact of host communities’ perceived destination sustainability on perceived quality of life. The study was conducted with 355 participants from host communities in Haad Chao Mai Marine National Park, Thailand. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data. The collected data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that perceived responsible tourism practice had a significant impact on perceived destination sustainability and perceived quality of life. Additionally, perceived destination sustainability influenced perceived quality of life. As such, embedding responsible tourism practice in destination development plan can enable destination sustainability and better quality of life of host communities and it might make the park successful ecotourism destination.