Rural communities seeking to improve the quality of life for their residents often turn to tourism as a means to improve their economic position. The sustainability of any economic development plan is dependent on community organizations that are actively trying to control and shape their quality of life within their community. This study reveals that involved residents evaluate their quality of life higher than do the noninvolved residents. Even though the results indicated that there are no statistically significant differences in how involved versus noninvolved citizens evaluate the potential impacts of tourism, differences in the support each group indicated for the development of cultural tourism infrastructure were identified. The views of the involved citizens are important to decision makers because the involved citizens are the ones most likely to influence public policy.
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