Incoming international tourists and wellbeing: Empirical analysis and interpretation

Many cities consider development of cultural tourism as opportunity to sustain employment and economic growth of the area. However, increasing tourists’ flows affect local economies and lives of local residents in a number of ways not excluding negative effects. Careful consideration of benefits and pitfalls of cultural tourism development is necessary in order to sustain balanced urban development. In the present paper, experience of tourism development in 11 German cities, capitals of German cultural tourism, is evaluated. The analysis is focused on the effect of cultural tourism on the wellbeing of urban residents. To address this issue, the effect of tourists’ arrivals to the centres of cultural tourism on the satisfaction with life of urban residents is investigated. Based on the results of the study, suggest policy implications for the development of cultural tourism are suggested that lead to improvements of quality of life of locals.