Content area
Abstract
The fundamental objective of tourism development lies in achieving a desirable quality of life for residents of host destinations by improving economic prosperity, while protecting cultural and natural resources. If residents perceive that tourism has a substantial role in the achievement of these goals, they will likely be supportive of development. Hence, the effects of perceived tourism impacts on both personal, and community quality of life, along with residents‘ support for tourism in the historic city of Cologne, Germany were examined.
A theoretical model was conceptualized and empirically tested by applying a two-stage structural equation modeling approach. A total of 633 residents of Cologne were sampled which constituted a response rate of 68%. Residents were asked to rate their level of agreement with tourism impacts based on the four dimensions of sustainability-economic, environmental, socio-cultural, and institutional. In addition, two measures of quality of life-community and personal, and support for tourism were assessed.
It was hypothesized that resident perceptions of tourism impacts would affect community and personal quality of life, as well as support for tourism. Furthermore, it was postulated that quality of life would mediate the relationship between perceived impacts and support for tourism. Results identified that residents had overall positive perceptions of tourism; were generally satisfied with their quality of life, and were supportive of tourism in Cologne.
Based on the inclusion of both community and personal quality of life constructs, although positive perceptions of tourism impacts were found to predict support for tourism, their relationship with resident quality of life may not be as straightforward as previously assumed. Moreover, perceived tourism impacts had varying effects on community and personal quality of life, and neither mediated the relationship between perceived tourism impacts and support for tourism. More specifically, resident perceptions of the institutional structure of Cologne and the socio-cultural impacts of tourism had significant direct effects on community quality of life; conversely, resident perceptions of economic and environmental impacts had significant direct effects on personal quality of life. Moreover, community quality of life had the strongest effect on personal quality of life. Additionally, a negative relationship existed between perceived environmental impacts and personal quality of life while perceptions of socio-cultural tourism impacts and of institutional structure demonstrated weak indirect effects on personal quality of life mediated by community quality of life.
