The Role of Tourism in Destination Residents? Life Changes (Case Study: City of Tabriz)

Tourism develops in the context of geographical environment consisting of natural, cultural and social environment. Each one of these environments is made up of factors that influence and are influenced by the tourism in some ways. Tourism can have various and remarkable effects on tourist area such as social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental effects. Given the complexity and the expansion of tourism activities, their resulting effects have many interconnected dimensions that should be noted in the study of tourism industry. The effects are typically and directly reflected in the quality and life style of the host society. Therefore, tourism industry can be considered as one the most effective factors on the quality of life of the inhabitants of tourism destinations. This study was conducted via descriptive and analytical methods to determine the effects of tourism on life quality. The data were collected through field observation, questionnaire distribution, and library studies. The research population included the local residents of Tabriz. Cochran sample size was used to determine the sample size for 400 subjects and the sample was selected through simple random sampling. The data were analyzed through factor analysis within SPSS software and the questionnaire validity and reliability were tested through content validity (professors and experts' comments in relation to urban and tourism issues) and Cronbach's alpha coefficient, respectively that were acceptable. The results of exploratory analysis indicated that whenever the residents were asked to express their opinion about the effects of tourism on specific domains of life, they had a positive perception of the issue. In other words, when the effects of tourism are raised in relation to life satisfaction, the residents have a positive perception of the economic, social, cultural, environmental effects and specific domains of life. Moreover, the factor "How much satisfied you are with your life" with the factor load of 0.873 was the most important component of overall quality of life.