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TOURISM

TOURISM. PETER ROBINSON MICHAEL LÜCK STEPHEN L. J. SMITH. 17. Tourism Research. Learning Objectives. To appreciate fundamental approaches to doing research on tourism To understand key concepts relevant to doing research To describe the nature of research questions

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TOURISM

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  1. TOURISM PETER ROBINSON MICHAEL LÜCK STEPHEN L. J. SMITH

  2. 17 Tourism Research

  3. Learning Objectives • To appreciate fundamental approaches to doing research on tourism • To understand key concepts relevant to doing research • To describe the nature of research questions • To understand different styles of research • To discuss the nature of ‘theory’ in tourism research

  4. Nature of Tourism Research • Tourism planning, development and marketing depend on good data and analysis • Decisions should be based on evidence • May be either empirical (numerical or independently verifiable) or subjective (not independently verifiable) • Fundamentally: research is about asking and answering questions

  5. Research Versus Management Questions • Management questions • Usually multifaceted and complex • May involve personalities, institutional or regulatory challenges, or politics • Often evolves as a result of trying to solve it • May not be solvable through research • Solution may depend on budgets, tact, courage, ability/diplomacy of manager, compromise

  6. Research Versus Management Questions • Research questions • Must be answerable – not philosophical or political ruminations • Tend to be more focused than management questions • Answer is evidence-based • Answers based on data and analysis – not personality of researcher

  7. General Approaches to Research • Management research: improve management activities such as marketing or operations • Often undertaken or commissioned by a business • Planning research: future-oriented, acquiring information to develop some project • Done by both public and private sectors

  8. General Approaches to Research • Policy research: supports the development of tourism policy and government priorities • Potential scope of public policy research is quite wide • Social science research: a search for deeper understanding of some phenomenon • Typically undertaken by a academics • Examines tourism from a wide range of perspectives, such as a form of human behaviour or as a social phenomenon

  9. Paradigms • Set of assumptions about the nature of reality and how individuals perceive reality • Epistemology: how we know what we know • The relationship between the researcher and the subject • Ontology: the nature of being or reality of the phenomenon studied • Methodology: the methods or tools used to answer a research question • Empirical • Subjective

  10. Empirical Research • Usually based on numbers for coding and typically some form of statistical analysis • Logic is explicit and can be replicated • Often involves hypothesis-testing • The articulation of a possible relationship among variables • Statistical tests are then used to assess whether the hypothesis appears valid

  11. Subjective Research • Usually based on words, thoughts, or images • Assumes people interpret experiences in highly personal terms • Also includes ‘content analysis’ – researcher interpreting documents, photographs, other records • Cannot be independently verified

  12. Types of Tourism Research • ‘Pure’ research: done solely to increase knowledge • Applied or action research: done to solve a practical problem; initiated by researcher • Consultancy research: commissioned by a client to solve his/her problem

  13. Types of Tourism Research • Workplace research: form of action research done internally by an employee(s) of a firm • Delay research: a management tactic using ‘need for research’ to delay making a decision

  14. Functions of Research • Description: provides information on what exists • Explanation: generates insights into cause-and-effect relationships • Prediction: forecasts likely outcome of a course of action (or inaction)

  15. The Nature of ‘Theory’ • A familiar word used many different ways • Types of ‘theory’ • Theory of the first type: traditional, natural science-type theory; only one theory accepted as valid; produces testable hypotheses • Theory of the second type: similar to first type, but competing theories may exist; common in social sciences

  16. The Nature of ‘Theory’ • More types of ‘theory’ • Theory of the third type: label applied to results of statistical testing • Theory of the fourth type: untested/untestable verbal or graphic model • Theory of the fifth type: epistemology presented as ‘theory’ • Theory of the sixth type: ‘grounded theory’ • Theory of the seventh type: ‘theory’ used without any special meaning

  17. Phases of a Research Project • Set goals • Review related literature • Develop research design (data collection and analysis methods) • Analysis • Articulate conclusions • Publish/report findings

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