Tourism and Quality of Life

Abstract

This chapter is about residents' perceptions of the social impacts caused by tourism. The objective of the study is to analyze how the impacts of tourism influence the quality of life of residents of tourist destinations. The proposed methodology is based on a quali-quantitative approach with field research through the application of a questionnaire with residents of three coastal areas of Fortaleza: Grande Pirambu, Beira Mar, and Praia do Futuro (Northeast of Ceará-Brazil). The results show that tourism impacts positively on the quality of life, especially for residents of Beira-Mar and Praia do Futuro; however, residents of Grande Pirambu pointed to job generation as the greatest of the positive impacts in the area. About the negative impacts, the highest percentage was identified in Beira Mar, corroborating the need to plan tourism to expand benefits and minimize costs of tourism. It concludes that the impacts of tourism on the quality of life of residents in the studied areas are diverse, and that the most affected dimensions were related to economic aspects and citizenship.