RESEARCH METHODS IN TOURISM
Nicos Rodosthenous PhD
14/02/2013
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14/2/2013
Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
1
Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Introduction:
• The aim of this chapter is to introduce a number of
disciplines and examples by which leisure and tourism
research is conducted.
• The chapter examines:
• 1) Disciplinary traditions: reviews of a number of
academic disciplines and their approaches to leisure
and tourism research, including sociology, economics,
geography, psychology, social psychology, history and
philosophy.
• 2) Cross-disciplinary dimensions:
• -theoretical and applied research
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
•
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-theoretical and empirical research
-induction and deduction
-descriptive and explanatory research
-experimental and non- experimental
methods
• -positivist and interpretive approaches
• -quantitative and qualitative methods
• Primary and secondary data
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• An inter-disciplinary framework: consists of
five main elements.
 People
 Organizations
 Services/facilities/attractions
 The linkages between these three
 The physical environment within everything
takes place
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• The linkages between people, organizations and
services consist of three processes:
 Link A-market research and political activity
 Link B-marketing, buying, selling, employing,
visiting/using services
 Link C-planning and investment
• Disciplines in leisure and tourism studies:
 Psychology and social psychology are focussed on
people element, with links A &B.
 Political science is concerned with organizations and
with link A to the people
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 History can cover the whole system
 Economics at the macro-level with the whole system,
while micro-economics with link B
 Sociology with the people, with link A and
organizations
 Applied disciplines, planning, management, and
marketing are based in organizations and with links A &
C.
 Geography interacts with people and the environment
 Comprehensive social, economic and political systems
of thoughts encompass the whole system
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• A. Sociology
• 1) Social surveys and quantitative models
• Sociology is concerned with explaining or understanding
social behavior of groups or classes of people through a
social research.
• Most of the high-profile American research approach was
normative mode with quantitative/modeling type, highly
statistical and concerned with predicting numbers of
participants and visits.
• 2) explaining why
• ‘Surveys and modeling’ approach was challenged by
sociologists not interested in quantitative model and
forecasting, but in the value of more sociological theory.
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Not just what people did with their leisure time but
why and what leisure meant to them.
• The development of benefits and constraints
approaches to leisure research in1980s, gained an
input in planning and providing leisure services to
maximise benefits.
• Constraints research focussed on the social, physical
and economic factors.
• 3) Sociology of tourism:
• Recreation research in N.America could equally be
seen as tourism research.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Today, tourism research is characterised by a
predominance of economic and marketing and
related psychological research rather than
sociological research.
• Sociological research can be divided into:
 The tourist
 Relations between tourists and locals
 Structure and functioning of the tourist system
 Social and environmental consequences of
tourism (leisure research in 1980s)
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Recently there is a tendency to move away from
mass tourism and to examine specialised groups
engaged in ‘special interest’ tourism, like ecotourism, green tourism.
• B. Geography
• Questions of geographical leisure and tourism
research refer to: where do people live, how do
they view crowing and congestion, how do they
make use of outdoor recreation areas?
• Recently, geographers overlap into sociology and
bridge the gap between leisure and tourism.
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Have also linked the concept of lifestyle with census
info to create “lifestyle maps”, as a mixture of
geography and psychological research.
• C. Economics
• How do incomes affect leisure expenditure?
• How will a change in the exchange rate affect
international tourist arrivals?
• Leisure and tourism products and services account 2030% of consumer spending.
• Major focus of research in the economics of leisure has
been on the public sector.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Research on “cost-benefit analysis”-ways of measuring
both the full costs and the full benefits to society with
a commercail facility like Disneyland.
• In most countries they produce forecasts of domestic
and overseas tourists trips, based on economic models.
• D. Psychology/social psychology
• What satisfactions do people obtain from their leisure?
What motivates people to engage in leisure activity?
• Contribution of the psychology to leisure research can
be divided into four categories:
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 Motivation and needs (why people do what they
do)
 Satisfactions (particular types of leisure lead to
differential levels of satisfaction)
 Leisure as a state of mind (styles, social roles)
 Individual differences (gender, age, personality)
• There is a link between psychology, consumer
research and market research, which is reflected
on tourism markets and marketing.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• E. History and anthropology
• Historical writing tends to jump from ancient
Greece to the industrial revolution in Europe.
(case of Cyprus)
• Tourism is traced back to classical Greek and
Roman times, to the emergence of the ‘grand
tour’ in Europe in the 17-18th centuries.
• Anthropological research methods, however,
emerge through ‘cultural studies’ in the form of
ethnographical methods, which will be discussed
in chapter 8 on qualitative methods.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
• Approaches and dimensions
 Theoretical and applied research: theoretical research
draws conclusions about the phenomena being studied.
Applied research creates new knowledge by applying
existing theoretical knowledge to specific problems or
issues.
 Empirical and non-empirical research: Empirical research
involves the collection and/or analysis of data-quantitative
or qualitative, primary or secondary. Theoretical and
empirical research coexist and enhance each other. Nonempirical contributions are needed to review and refine
ideas and put the empirical work in context.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 Induction and deduction: refer to alternative approaches
to explanation in research. Research involves finding out
and explaining, what is happening, how and why? It also
involves description and collecting of info.
 Inductive
 begin at point A, observation/description
 Proceed to point B, analysis
 Arrive at point C, explanation
 Deductive
 Begin at point A, with hypothesis
 Proceed to point A, observation/description, collecting data
to test the hypothesis
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 Proceed to point B, analysis, to test the
hypothesis against the data.
 (Case study 1 : Tennis vs Golf)
Descriptive and explanatory research: i.e. a
descriptive research shows a tourist
destination losing market share. Explanatory
research would examine the reasons, price
movements or ineffective marketing.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 Positivist and interpretive research: In positivism the
researcher sees people as phenomena to be studied
from outside. The interpretive model sees people
being studied to provide their own explanation.
 Experimental and non-experimental methods involve
the scientists attempting to control the environment by
measuring the effects of change. i.e.to experiment in
management by varying prices or advertising strategies
in relation to leisure or tourism services. To study nonexperimental methods it is necessary to study
differences between people as they exist.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
 Primary and secondary data: planning a research
to consider either to collect new info (primary
data) or to use existing data (secondary data). i.e.
official government statistics or financial records.
 Self-reported and observed data: self reported
data are the people’s own reports about
themselves.( past behavior, attitudes and
questionnaires). Observed data, i.e. to find out
how many adults make use of a resort it would be
better to watch them than try to ask them.
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
Qualitative and quantitative research: leisure
and tourism research involves collection,
analysis and presentation of statistical info.
The quantitative approach involves statistical
analysis and relies on numerical evidence to
draw conclusions or to test hypotheses. Asking
people to indicate levels of satisfaction with
different services (1- dissatisfied, 5-very
satisfied) is considered as qualitative
approach.
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Dr Nicos Rodosthenous
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Review approaches and dimensions of leisure
and tourism research
Validity and reliability: validity is the extent to
which the info collected by the researcher
truly reflects the phenomenon being studied.
Reliability is the extent to which research
findings would be the same if the research
were to be repeated at a later date or with a
different sample of subjects.
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