An affordable, sustainable tourist QoL model: the case study of Appalachian mountain towns

Purpose - This article proposes a model for benchmarking tourism quality of life (QoL) that is practical and affordable to implement by communities of all sizes. The model is tested on a group of 30 mountain towns in the Appalachian region of the United States. Design/methodology/approach - An existing model measuring resident QoL from Roanoke, Virginia, is discussed and a new model for tourist QoL is proposed. Both models employ secondary data from free sources to calculate a practical, affordable and quantifiable QoL index. Findings - Analysis of the data indicates the Appalachian mountain town with the highest tourist QoL score is Lynchburg, Virginia, with a composite QoL index value of 128, followed closely by Charlottesville, Virginia, with an index of 126 (where an index of 100 = the US national average). Practical implications - A tourist QoL model has practical value because it can be used by local policymakers to benchmark their region's QoL, make comparisons with other destinations, and ultimately, as a tool to help market their community - all using free and readily available data. Originality/value - This case study adds value to the hospitality and tourism literature by sharing the Roanoke QoL model for the first time with the academic and practitioner community and extends its methods to propose how a tourist QoL model would work. It also addresses the research gap noted by Uysal et al. (2016) who observed a dearth of tourism research studies that utilize objective measures.