Evaluation of Quality of Life and Living Space in the Balaton Destination (Hungary) Based on the Perceptions of the Local Residents and the Owners of Second Homes

The study aims to reveal the evaluation of quality of life (QOL) factors of the local residents and the owners of the second homes from a regional perspective. As a case study we analyse the second most important tourism destination of Hungary, Lake Balaton in terms of evaluation of quality of life and living space within the scope of three target groups, two groups of local residents (who live there and work there, and who live there but work elsewhere) and the owners of second homes. The authors believe that the understanding of the decisive factors of quality of life and living space is becoming increasingly important in the successful management of local governments and in the field of sustainable tourism development and tourism management as well. The authors also intend to detect and understand the differences between the target groups. One of the most important results of the article is the creation of an aggregated settlement quality of life (QOL) indicator. The research observes both objective and subjective factors based on a primary questionnaire survey conducted in 2018 resulting from a sample of 844 respondents. The results are interpreted with crosstab, correlation and variance analysis.