Research on sustainable tourism is growing but often not done in tandem with a community led initiative to effect policy. This study was part of a community and tourism sustainability effort that involved a stakeholder-involved process in a community in the southwestern U.S. The community is a popular destination by in-state, national and international tourists. This paper focuses on the results of two of the several data collection efforts that were part of this project: resident survey and business owner/manager survey. Specially, the findings of this research show that the community atmosphere factor that includes indicators related to the physical environment and safety most contributes to a high QOL in the community and must be a priority consideration in sustainable tourism planning. Conversely, the crowding factor most severely detracts from QOL with traffic, crowding and congestion being detrimental to QOL.