The interplay between tourism and the quality of life in host communities

Abstract Tourism development is a multidimensional process that reshapes local communities through economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and institutional change. Although residents’ attitudes toward tourism have been widely examined, fewer studies have assessed how tourism is perceived to affect residents’ quality of life through integrated evaluative perspectives. This study addresses this gap by applying the Tourism-Related Quality of Life (TQOL) framework to examine residents’ perceptions of tourism development in the Zlatibor region (Municipality of Čajetina), one of Serbia’s leading tourist destinations. The analysis is based on a structured survey of local residents ( n = 423) and evaluates 36 quality-of-life indicators across three analytically distinct dimensions: perceived importance, satisfaction, and perceived impact of tourism. This approach enables comparison between residents’ value priorities, lived experiences, and tourism-related attributions. Exploratory factor analysis identifies six domains of tourism-related quality of life, including urban issues, public services, community well-being, way of life, and governance-related aspects. The results reveal a clear discrepancy between the high importance residents assign to quality-of-life indicators and their more moderate satisfaction levels, indicating tensions within the local development process. Tourism is generally perceived as contributing positively to the quality of life, particularly through infrastructure, services, and cultural vitality, while weaker effects are observed in domains related to governance and resident participation. By providing an index-based assessment from an under-researched Southeast European context, this study contributes to debates on community well-being and sustainable tourism, emphasizing the need to better align tourism development with residents’ priorities and participatory capacities.