Tourism development and quality of life interdependence with evolving age-cohort-based population

Abstract

Tourism development (TD) greatly depends on tourist destination residents to develop and deliver goods and services to tourists; it is intricately connected with destination residents' quality of life (QOL) and requires an adequate workforce (primarily associated with destination population development). Therefore, this study investigates the relationships among TD, QOL, and population development (grouped by age groups). The methodology involves data decomposition, unit root, Granger causality testing, and the Three-Stage Least Squares model application using time-series data from Japan. Study results indicate that (1) total population development in Japan negatively impacted TD but positively affected residents' QOL and (2) the impact of TD or QOL on population development varied by age group and, for the first time in tourism literature, demonstrate these results theoretically by investigating these three relationships according to three age groups. The study findings may help destination governments enhance their residents’ QOL through managing TD and population development.