Impact of Rural Tourism Development on Residents’ Satisfaction with the Local Environment, Socio-Economy and Quality of Life in Al-Ahsa Region, Saudi Arabia

Thowayeb H. Hassan, Amany E. Salem and Mostafa A. Abdelmoaty
Additional contact information
Thowayeb H. Hassan: Social Studies Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 400, Saudi Arabia
Amany E. Salem: Social Studies Department, College of Arts, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 400, Saudi Arabia
Mostafa A. Abdelmoaty: Independent Researcher, Giza 12573, Egypt

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Tourism has a significant role in destination development, particularly in rural regions. However, within the context of the highly sensitive nature of rural areas to the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural effects of tourism development, it is important to assess the levels of satisfaction among the residents of rural destinations. The current study aimed to assess the impact of rural tourism development in the Al-Ahsa region, Saudi Arabia on the overall resident satisfaction and three relevant subdomains. The findings revealed that the three tourism development impacts under investigation, including the social, economic and environmental effects, were positively associated with resident overall satisfaction. The three influential developmental categories were also independent predictors of the satisfaction with the quality of life and environment subdomains. National policy makers are required to implement adequate rural tourism development measures and regulations to improve tourism services and activities, which would eventually be reflected in the quality of life of local residents.

Keywords: rural tourism; tourism; quality of life; rural residents; Saudi Arabia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4410/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/7/4410/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:7:p:4410-:d:788159

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().