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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Anna Blackman, Gianna Moscardo, Andrea Schurmann & Laurie Murphy
School/Work Place : James Cook University, Australia
Contact : anna.blackman@jcu.edu.au
Year : 2014

The concept of Quality of Life (QoL) is implicit in conceptualisations of tourism, especially those used to develop and guide tourism policy and planning. At the individual level it is assumed that travel offers a number of different ways to improve the QoL of the tourist, through contributions to physical health, stress release, learning and skills building. At the community level tourism development is typically presented as a tool to improve or enhance the QoL of destination residents. More recent analyses of the actual contributions that tourism makes to the QoL of destination communities have demonstrated both the complexity of the concept and suggested that tourism may not always make the assumed QoL contributions. Research to date on the links between travel and individual QoL has focussed mostly on describing the range of contributions, especially for younger travellers and specific forms of tourism such as volunteering, backpacking and educational tourism, often associated with youth tourists. This research does have, however, a number of issues including problems with survivor bias and a reliance on inferring the QoL contributions from descriptions of travel experiences. This paper seeks to contribute to improving our understanding of the linkages between QoL and tourism through an exploratory study of young people’s social representations of QoL in general.

By studying representations of Qol outside of the tourism context it is possible to more critically examine the role that tourism might play at both an individual and a community level. At the individual level it allows for an analysis of how important travel is, if at all, in QoL, while at the community level it provides insights into how tourism impacts could affect younger destination residents. Improving our understanding of the relationship between tourism and QoL has implications for several aspects of tourism policy and planning related to product development, choices about directions for destination development, and the provision of access to travel opportunities for citizens.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Date
11 Think Tank XIV Local Networks as Sustainable Policy Instruments: A Ca... file 4237 Jun 27, 2014

In this case study, a communication network among local hotel managers was examined, first to assess the extent of communication among hotel managers, and second to identify influential members within the network. Communication with respect ...

Author: Karen Irene Thal & Tracy Burkett 

Year: 2014 

10 Think Tank XIV Tourism Development as Greek Tragedy: Implications for... file 25139 Jun 26, 2014

Although tourism has been used as a development strategy in many parts of the world for several decades, there is little evidence that it is an effective tool for improving the wellbeing of destination communities. It is not uncommon to find...

Author: Gianna Moscardo, Anna Blackman & Laurie Murphy 

Year: 2014 

9 Think Tank XIV Implementation and Governance of Hotel Chain's CSR pol... file 33800 Jun 26, 2014

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing importance in the tourism industry over the past two decades, making it a central aspect of many business strategies. Many international hotel corporations have integrated CSR polic...

Author: Dagmar Lund-Durlacher & Carolin Brewi 

Year: 2014 

8 Think Tank XIV The Development of a National Tourism Research Agenda ... file 6543 Jun 26, 2014

A national research agenda identifies the research priorities that need to be addressed to “inform future policy and service delivery” by government and “for use by academics and practitioners to stimulate research, partnerships and collabor...

Author: Leo Jago & Margaret Deery 

Year: 2014 

7 Think Tank XIV Psychological Empowerment as Good Policy for Governanc... file 5264 Jun 26, 2014

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential impact psychological empowerment can have on sustainable tourism policy objectives, including improving resident attitudes toward tourism, enhancing destination competitiveness, and maint...

Author: B. Bynum Boley & Nancy Gard McGehee 

Year: 2014 

» Think Tank XIV Exploring Youth Perspectives on Quality of Life and To... file 2713 Jun 26, 2014

The concept of Quality of Life (QoL) is implicit in conceptualisations of tourism, especially those used to develop and guide tourism policy and planning. At the individual level it is assumed that travel offers a number of different ways to...

Author: Anna Blackman, Gianna Moscardo, Andrea Schurmann & Laurie Murphy 

Year: 2014 

5 Think Tank XIII Sri Lanka, Tourism for a Brighter Future? A Review of ... file 27846 Nov 06, 2013

Tourism is considered to have the potential to generate foreign exchange revenue, create jobs for all levels, support handicraft and export industries, promote art and subsidise the development of transportation infrastructure; as it’s a vec...

Author: Zilmiyah Kamble & Frederic Bouchon 

Year: 2013 

4 Think Tank XIII Resident Perceptions of the Impacts of Tourism in Majo... file 4715 Nov 06, 2013

Despite the importance of cities and tourism flows to cities, the literature which explores the effect of tourism on host communities tends to focus on non-urban locations. As different types of tourists place different demands upon the reso...

Author: Tony Griffin & Deborah Edwards 

Year: 2013 

3 Think Tank XII Sustainability and policy mobility in resort destinations file 2222 Nov 06, 2013

In the arena of resort development, there is a long history of destinations emulating (and seeking to surpass) one another in efforts to maintain competitiveness. In recent years, the use of “best case” examples are common tools employed to ...

Author: Alison M. Gill & Peter W. Williams 

Year: 2012 

2 Think Tank IV Possibilities for Sustainable Tourism Management in Ac... file 4593 Oct 13, 2013

Sustainability is an inevitable concept in tourism which heavily depends on natural resources and environment with its products and services. Here prevention and controlling water, air and noise pollution, habitat degradation is more importa...

Author: Meryem Atik, Türker Altan & A. Akin Aksu 

Year: 2004 

1 Think Tank IV Sustainability in a Mature Mass-Tourism Destination: T... file 4687 Oct 13, 2013

Most destinations are struggling to achieve sustainability for their economies, their environments, their cultures and their tourism industries. This laudatory, idealistic and complex process involves many sectors of the industry, the commun...

Author: Pauline Sheldon, John Knox & Kem Lowry 

Year: 2004 

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