Livelihoods & Quality of Local Life
Tourism improves long-term living standards locally
Beyond individual wages, does tourism improve the broader quality of life in a destination? This sub-indicator looks at the longer-term livelihood impacts of tour activity — whether residents are genuinely better off because of tourism and whether operators can demonstrate measurable improvement.
Whether tourism activity improves the long-term livelihoods and quality of life of local residents, beyond immediate employment.
How RTA measures this
The same sub-indicator is assessed from two sides: operators self-assess their performance; travellers rate their experience. Both use a 1–5 scale.
“To what extent did this tour contribute to improving long-term livelihoods and quality of life for local residents?”
- 1We do not know. And/or: tourism in the destination is said to have created problems such as waste, water shortage, etc., but we are not responsible for it.
- 2We cannot measure this.
- 3We employ some local people whose livelihoods have improved. And/or: the partners / businesses involved in the tour have increased their revenue.
- 4We were told by locals that the living conditions of the local community have improved and/or that our tour helped to revive some declining traditional activities. Or: our tour helps visited local businesses to sustain their activities.
- 5We monitor the impacts of this tour: livelihoods have improved significantly for local people since the tour started. And/or: some marginalized people now have regular revenue and recognition. (Information is available.)
“How well did this tour appear to support long-term improvements to local livelihoods and quality of life?”
- 1There was no visible evidence that the tour contributed to local livelihoods beyond basic transactions.
- 2Limited evidence of positive livelihood impact was apparent — the benefits seemed to go to very few people.
- 3Some signs of positive livelihood impact were visible, though the scale was unclear.
- 4Visible improvements to local livelihoods were evident — the tour clearly contributed positively to the community.
- 5The tour's positive impact on local livelihoods was outstanding — quality of life benefits for the community were clearly evident.
Other sub-indicators in Local Economic Footprint & Livelihood
Rate this indicator yourself
Complete a questionnaire and see how an operator scores across all 16 sub-indicators.