ABSTRACT

Quality of life (QoL) has become a topic of interest in the tourism literature over the past two decades. Although there is no consensus on the conceptualisation of QoL, the latter is concerned with the understanding of what people really perceive as satisfaction within the circumstances in which they live and how they view their lives. As tourism is a contemporary force which has the potential to bring several benefits to destination communities, scholars have argued that local residents’ QoL in any tourist destination is influenced by tourism development occurring in a community. However, tourism has, since the sustainable paradigm, attracted several criticisms, and debate continues to surround the broader development outcomes for destinations that have embraced tourism. The contribution of tourism to locals’ QoL is disputably the fundamental reason which supports the development of tourism in a destination and can help developing nations in particular to achieve sustainable development goals. This chapter reviews the existing and recent surge of scholarly work on QoL and presents the topic from a development perspective. It also discusses QoL frameworks and measurement in tourism research.