Dimensions of responsible tourism and quality of life

Abstract

Responsible tourism consists in undertaking such activities that enable achieving growth in a way that either does not destroy the existing environment and protects the culture, history, heritage, and achievements of local communities. Besides, the attainment of responsible tourism requires careful management of tourists’ and residents’ behaviors to prevent deleterious effects on the environment, sociocultural setting and visitor satisfaction. This paper is aimed to evolve the factors influencing Dimensions of Responsible tourism and to validate Quality of Life (QOL). The study is made with selected 3 Districts in Tamilnadu respectively Madurai District, Tanjore District and Kanniyakumari District. The respondents are the residents who are located in the three districts nearing tourism spots.250 Questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and only 225 respondents returned the full filled questionnaire. Through IBM SPSS the validity construction is ensured through the Percentage analysis, Descriptive Analysis and Confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability is measured with the consistency of each item score. These tests are guaranteed by representative samples and Convenience sampling method is used to analyse the study. Tourism can have both positive and negative impacts on the QOL of local communities. In general, the domains of QOL that are perceived to be positively affected are the economy, employment opportunities, community pride, cultural exchange, and availability of facilities.