Infrastructure-Led Tourism Development and Residents’ Quality of Life: The Mediating Role of Place Image in an Emerging Heritage Destination

While tourism infrastructure is crucial to regional development, its impact on resident well-being is still debated. This study investigates the influence of infrastructure on material and non-material quality of life, utilizing place image as a mediation, and grounded on the Tourism Area Life Cycle, Social Exchange Theory, and multidimensional well-being frameworks. Structural equation modeling of 425 people in Turkistan, Kazakhstan, indicates a notable asymmetry: infrastructure markedly improves place image and non-material life satisfaction, but exerts no direct influence on material well-being. The placement of images positively influences non-material results while negatively affecting material pleasure, a phenomenon referred to as “symbolic-material divergence. Apparent modernization engenders communal pride without yielding equivalent economic benefits, resulting in cognitive dissonance that may transform local support into animosity. Policymakers are advised that physical improvements must yield concrete economic advantages; otherwise, increasing pride coupled with stagnant living conditions will jeopardize the sustainability of the destination.