This study investigates how tourism affects the quality of life (QOL) of residents in tourism destinations that vary in the stage of development. The proposed model in this study structurally depicts that satisfaction with life in general derives from the satisfaction with particular life domains. Overall life satisfaction is derived from material well-being, which includes the consumer’s sense of well being as it is related to material possessions, community well-being, emotional well-being, and health and safety well being domains. The model also posits that  residents’ perception of tourism impacts (economic, social, cultural, and environmental) affects their satisfaction of particular life domains.  Lastly, this study investigates that tourism development stages moderate the relationship between residents’ perception of tourism impacts and their satisfaction with particular life domains. Accordingly, the  study proposed four major hypotheses: (1) residents’ perception of tourism impacts  affects their QOL in the community, (2) residents’ satisfaction with particular life domains is affected by the perception of particular tourism impact dimensions, (3) residents’ satisfaction with particular life domains affects residents’ life satisfaction in general, and (4) the relationship between residents’ perception of tourism impacts and their satisfaction with particulate life domains is moderated by tourism development stages.  The sample population consisting of residents residing in Virginia was surveyed. The sample was proportionally stratified on the basis of tourism development stages covering counties and cities  in the state. Three hundred  and twenty-one respondents completed the survey. Structural Equation Modeling and Hierarchical Multiple Regression were used to test study hypotheses. The results revealed that the residents’ perception of tourism impacts did affect their satisfaction with particular life domains significantly, and their satisfaction with particular life domains influenced their overall life satisfaction. The hypothesized moderating effect of tourism development  stages on the relationship between the perception of tourism impacts and the satisfaction with particular life domains was not supported. The results indicated that the relationship between the economic impact of tourism and the satisfaction with material well-being, and the relationship between the social impact of tourism and the satisfaction with community well-being were strongest among residents in communities characterized to be in the maturity stage of tourism development. This finding is consistent with social disruption theory which postulates that boomtown communities initially enter into a period of generalized crisis, resulting from the traditional stress of sudden, dramatic increases in demand for public services and improving community infrastructure (England and Albrecht’s (1984). Additionally, residents develop adaptive behaviors that reduce their individual exposure to stressful situations. Through this process, the QOL of residents is expected to initially decline, and 

then improve as the community and its residents adapt to the new situation (Krannich, Berry & Greider, 1989). However, when a community enters into the decline stage of tourism development, the relationship between the economic impact of tourism and the 

satisfaction with material well-being, and the  relationship between the social impact of tourism and the satisfaction with community well-being may be considered to be the capacity of the destination area to absorb tourists before the host population would feel 

negative impacts. This is consistent with the theoretical foundation of carrying capacity, suggesting that when tourism reaches its maturity or maximum limit, residents’ QOL may start deteriorating.  Further, the relationship between the  cultural impact of tourism and the satisfaction with emotional well-being, and  the relationship between the environmental impact of tourism and the satisfaction with health and safety well-being were strongest in the decline stage of tourism development. Neither the theories of social carrying capacity 

nor social disruption offered much to explain this result. However, this result is consistent with Butler’s (1980) argument that in the decline stage, more tourist facilities disappear as the area becomes less attractive to tourists and the viability of existing tourist facilities 

becomes more available to residents in  the destination community. As residents’ perception of negative environmental impacts increases, their satisfaction with health and safety well-being decreases in the decline stage of tourism development unless the area as a destination provides rejuvenating or alternative planning options. It has been well established that residents in certain types of tourism communities might perceive a certain type of tourism impact unacceptable, while in other communities, the same impact type may be more acceptable. Thus, the study suggests that the proposed model should be further tested and verified using longitudinal data.  

 

11 Introduction  1 

12 Research questions  1   

13 Knowledge of foundation -- 6 

14 Objectives - 8 

15 Theoretical basis -   9 

16 Propositions  15 

17 Structural model of the study  20 

18 Contribution of the study - 21 

  181 Theoretical advancement in tourism study   - 21 

  182 Practical application for the tourism-planning program   21 

19 Chapter summary - 22 

 

 

21 Introduction    23 

22 Relevance of the research    23 

23 Tourism impacts    25 

231 Economic impacts --   27 

Employment opportunities    26 

Revenues from tourists for local business and standard for living -  29 

    Cost of living  29 

  232 Social impacts  30 

  Congestion   -- 31 

  Local service  31 

Increasing social problem  32 

  233 Cultural impacts -- 32   

    Preservation of local culture  33 

    Cultural exchanges between residents and tourists -- 34 

  234 Environmental impacts - 35 

  Pollution -- 35 

  Solid waste -- 36 

  Wildlife  36 

235 Social carrying capacity  39 

  236 Life cycle model -- 40   

  2361 Beginning stage -- 44 

  2362 Growth stage -- 44 

2363 Maturity stage - 45 

  2364 Decline stage -- 46 

24 Quality of life studies    47 

  241 Material well-being domain  54 

  Standard of living -- 54 

    Income and employment - 55 

242 Community well-being domain -   57 

  243 Emotional well-being domain  58 

  Leisure activity -- 58 

  Spiritual activity  60 

  244 Health and safety well-being domain -- 61 

  245 Other well-being domains - 62 

  Family well-being - 62 

  Neighborhood well-being  63 

25 Chapter summary -- 64 

 

 

31 Introduction  65 

32 Research framework  65 

33 Research hypotheses  67 

34 Statistical method employed - 69 

  341 Phase I: Structural equation model - 69 

  3411 Measurement model  69 

    3412 Structural equation model - 71 

  342 Phase II: Hierarchical multiple regression  73 

35 Research design -- 74 

  351 Survey instrument -- 74 

  352 Data collection  74   

  353 Sample -- 74 

    Stratified random sampling - 75 

  Sample size -- 81 

  354 Measurement variables - 81 

    3541 Exogenous variables  82 

   Economic impact variables  83 

   Social impact variables  84 

   Cultural impact variables -- 85 

   Environmental impact variables - 86 

    3542 Endogenous variables - 87 

   Material well-being variables  87 

   Community well-being variables -- 88 

   Emotional well-being variables - 88 

   Health and Safety variables - 89 

   QOL in general -- 90 

  355 Pretest of the measurement instrument  91 

36 Reliability and validity - 91 

37 Chapter summary - 93 

 

 

41 Introduction - 94 

42 Pretest    94

421 Pretest Survey method   -- 95 

  422 Pretest sample   -- 96 

  423 Results from the pretest   -- 97 

    4231 Economic impact variable   - 98 

    4232 Social impact variables   -- 101 

    4233 Cultural impact of tourism variables - 103 

    4234 Environmental impact of tourism variables --  105 

    4235 Material well-being domain    106 

    4236 Community well-being domain   -- 108 

    4237 Emotional well-being domain   - 109 

    4238 Health and safety well-being domain    110 

    4239 Quality of life (QOL) in general   -- 112 

43 Final survey    113 

  431 Survey method    113 

  432 Samples    114 

  433 Profile of the respondents    115 

  434 Late-response Bias Tests   - 117 

  435 Descriptive statistics, Skewness, and Kurtosis   - 118 

44 Data analysis  119 

  441 Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)   - 119 

    4411 CFA of economic impact of tourism constructs   121 

    4412 CFA of social impact of tourism constructs - 123 

    4413 CFA of cultural impact of tourism constructs -- 124 

    4414 CFA of the environmental impact of tourism construct -  126 

    4415 CFA of the material well-being construct  127 

    4416 CFA of the community well-being construct --  129 

    4417 CFA of the emotional well-being constructs  130 

    4418 CFA of the health and safety well-being construct   131 

  442 Testing the proposed model  133 

  4421 Measurement model  134 

    4422 Fit indices - 143 

    4423 Discriminality validity - 147 

    4424 Convergent validity - 150 

    4425 Testing the proposed model and hypotheses  150 

44251 Testing the hypothesized structural model   156 

44252 Analysis of the Hypotheses - 161 

    4426 Testing of moderating effects  166 

45 Chapter summary - 190 

51 Introduction    194 

52 Summary of findings    194 

53 Discussions of the findings - 196 

531 Research questions and hypotheses  199 

532 Summary of the discussion  210 

54 Implication of this study    210 

541 Managerial implications   -- 210 

  542 Theoretical implications -- 213 

55 Limitations of the study    215 

56 Suggestions of the future study   -- 216 

57 Conclusions    217 

 

APPENDIX A   Survey Instrument   - 236  

APPENDIX B  Reminder postcard   - 245  

APPENDIX C   Counties and cities in each stage and the number of  

respondents from each county and city  246 

APPENDIX D   Demographic Profile of the respondents    247  

APPENDIX E   The results of the Pearson Chi-Square test for late  

response bias tests -- 250 

APPENDIX F   Individual items of the constructs with mean scores and  standard deviation   - 253 

APPENDIX G   The procedure of selecting the number of indicators   259

Table 21   The major positive and negative impacts of tourism - 38 

Table 22  The characteristics of tourism development stage  43  

Table 31  The criterion of the development stage -- 76  

Table 32  The criterion of the development stage associated with indicators --  78 

Table 33   Counties and cities in each stage and the number of stratified  Sample  80 

Table 41   Demographic Profile of the pretest sample   -- 97   

Table 42   Factor analysis result of the economic impact of tourism construct  100 

Table 43   Factor analysis result of the social impact of tourism construct   102 

Table 44   Factor analysis result of the cultural impact of tourism construct   104 

Table 45   Factor analysis result of the environmental impact of tourism  Construct   - 106 

Table 46   Factor analysis result of material well-being construct - 107 

Table 47   Factor analysis result of community well-being construct - 108 

Table 48   Factor analysis result of emotional well-being construct  110 

Table 49   Factor analysis result of health and safety well-being construct -   112 

Table 410   Factor analysis result of the quality of life in general -- 113 

Table 411   Response Rate   - 114 

Table 412   The result of the χ2 test for objective and subjective  development stage    117 

Table 413  Composite Reliability and validity of the economic impact variables    123 

Table 414   Composite Reliability and validity of the social impact variables -- 125

Table 415  Composite Reliability and validity of the cultural impact variables -126 

Table 416  Composite Reliability and validity of the environmental impact  Variables   - 128 

Table 417   Composite Reliability and validity of material well-being variables 129 

Table 418  Composite Reliability and validity of the community well-being  Variables - 130 

Table 419  Composite Reliability and validity of the emotional well-being  Variables  131 

Table 420   Composite Reliability and validity of the health and safety well-being 133 

Table 421  Parameter estimates for the proposed nine-factor measurement Model   138 

Table 422  Composite reliability and validity of overall measurement model -  141 

Table 423   Fit indices the proposed measurement model - 144 

Table 424  Results of Discriminant Validity Tests -- 149 

Table 425  Fit indices for five sub-model - 154 

Table 426   The results of SCDT -- 155 

Table 427   Pattern of estimated parameters in the Gamma and Beta matrices --  158 

Table 428   Fit-indices the proposed theoretical model  159 

Table 429   Estimated standized coefficients for the hypothesized model   160  

Table 430  Results of a Hierarchical MRC analysis for economic impact and  development stages  169 

Table 431  Results of a HMR analysis for economic impact and perceived  development stages  173 

Table 432  Results of a Hierarchical MRC analysis for social impact and  development stages -- 175  

Table 433  Results of a HMRC analysis for social impact and perception of  development stages -- 178

Table 434  Results of a Hierarchical MRC analysis for cultural impact  and development stages  181 

Table 435  Results of a HMRC analysis for cultural impact and  the perception of the development  183  

Table 436   Results of a HMRC analysis for environmental impact and  development stages - 186 

Table 437  Results of a HMRC analysis for environmental impact and  perception of the development -- 188 

Table 438   The summary of hypotheses testing results - 190 

Table 51   Hypothesized relationships and results  199