The influence of collaborative consumption on life quality of the residents tourist areas

Abstract

One form of social innovation is collaborative consumption. This concept match the idea of social entrepreneurship, which refers to “activity, mainly economic, undertaken in perspective and for social advantages, assuming the dominance of social effects over the aim at profit maximization” [22], and its important goal is “active searching and using opportunities for solving social issues” [6]. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the role of collaborative consumption in improving the quality of life by presenting the example of the tourist market. Furthermore, the article is an attempt to show that collaborative consumption in tourism influence the quality of life people using (high degree of satisfaction of the needs related to the sense of individuality, authenticity and co-existence), and providing services (optimizing the use of property, independence from external influences, getting the financial benefits by the local population, identification with their own culture, coherence of the local community, increasing human ability to act to solve the problem of social exclusion and increase the creativity of the individual person). In the theoretical framework of the article were presented the dependencies between the collaborative consumption, social innovations (it can be classified to) and the quality of life. The effect of the analysis of these issues is presentation of the economic, psychological, social and political advantages for local communities in the perspective of D.J. Timmothy [24], i.e. emancipation of the local population. For the empirical illustration of the analysis, will be presented the results of the own Author’s research, which was based on the data available in the Airbnb website. Authors have analyzed 65 histories, participants of collaborative consumption on the supply side. Using a scientific method called “desk reserach” authors have analyzed the benefits that collaborative consumption brings to the hosts in the social, economic and psychological spheres, achive many goals of sustainable development such as harmony, justice, balance, cultural integrity and conservation of wildlife. It was noted that in tourism the relationship between colaborative consumption and quality of life has bilateral character. Firstly, collaborative consumption has influence on the shape and quality of the product which is offered to tourists. This doesn’t include only staying in a specific place, but also creating a general definition of “atmosphere of a place”. Secondly, due to collaborative consumption, we can see increase of satisfaction degree of residents through economic and social effects (in the sense of establishing deep relationships, making friends and regarding the relationship with the place of residence) and individual effects which are related with the development of creativity and getting new skills.