Tourism and
Hospitality
Research Project
Research Overview
Learning objectives
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Review research methods
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Design your research project
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Compare quantitative and qualitative designs
The research process
1.
Define the problem/topic
2.
Review the literature
3.
Select a research design
4.
Carry out the research
5.
Analyse your data and Interpret your results
6.
Discuss your findings
7.
Provide managerial and policy making implications
8.
Mention your limitations and provide directions for future research
9.
Report on the findings
1. Define the problem/topic
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What do you want to study?
 The
five themes of the Tourism 2025 growth framework are:
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Productivity, Visitor experience, Connectivity, Insight, Target
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Destination characteristics, image, reputation, etc.
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Tourist characteristics, perceptions, expectations, satisfaction etc.
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Impacts on the destination, three pillars of sustainability, etc.
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Innovation in tourism, entrepreneurship in T&H sector
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Example: ski fields’ increasing engagement in pro-environmental initiatives and use of ‘green marketing.’
1. Define the problem/topic
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The research question(s) indicate exactly what aspect of the topic area you will be studying.
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Research question(s) translate your purpose statement into answerable questions.
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What is the research question?
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Example: Why do ski fields utilise green marketing?
2. Review the literature
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Show how other researchers have approached similar investigations.
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Indicate other data sources which you may not yet have considered as being relevant to your topic.
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Highlight potential difficulties that may be confronted and ways to overcome them.
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Provide you with new approaches to, or ideas on, the chosen study area.
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Put your forthcoming study into perspective with what has previously been done in the area.
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Introduce you to recognised and widely accepted theoretical models/concepts/theories on which your own
study may be centred.
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What topics might I include in my literature review for the study on ski areas’ use of green marketing?
3. Select a research design
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Main types of research:
 Qualitative: depth over breadth
 Quantitative: breadth over depth
 Mixed method: uses both qualitative and quantitative methods
3. Select a research design
Qualitative
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Quantitative
The analysis of data such as interview transcripts, • Analysis of data such as surveys/polls, word
films, online content, diaries, case studies, or
count/coding, image count/coding, visitor
participant observations.
trends/seasonality numbers, statistics.
Often studies real-world situations as they occur. • Every step in the study is typically clearly outlined
Research techniques may change as the study
in advance and strict protocols are followed.
progresses; prior assumptions/conclusions are re- Usually tests one or more hypotheses.
visited) .
• Tries to be scientific and objective and to
• Does not view the researcher as an objective
minimise/eliminate research bias.
observer!
• Large samples (often random)
• Small, purposeful samples
• Designed to be as replicable as possible. Findings
• Does not necessarily attempt to be replicable;
should be able to be generalised to other contexts.
findings are often context-specific.
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3. Select a research design
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Qualitative Methods:
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Interviews: I talk to you about your experience of jetboating
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Focus groups: I gather the group that went jetboating and we all discuss together
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Participant observations: I go jetboating with the group and observe their actions/reactions/interactions
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Case studies: I choose a single jet-boat operator and interview tourists, employees, and managers in
addition to analysing online content (FB, blog posts, Twitter, etc)

Quantitative Methods
Survey: I develop a questionnaire to survey respondents about their experience/ expectations/
perception/attitude/ etc of jetboating etc.
4. Carry out the research
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Population: entire group of people who could participate in the study (e.g. ski tourists in Queenstown)
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Sample: the subset that you actually talk to, survey, etc. (e.g. 20 skiers in Queenstown – 10 ‘high frequency’
and 10 ‘low frequency’)
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Representative/probability versus non-representative/non-probability
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Appropriate size depends on:
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The research objectives
the variation in the population of interest
the level of accuracy required
the resources available
4. Carry out the research
 Qualitative sampling
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Quota: determine key characteristics that are likely to be important for your study; set quotas for recruiting
a certain number of people from each group
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Purposeful: only participants who are deemed to be highly relevant for the research are selected; does not
try to represent the entire population
 Snowball sampling: find one or more key participants; they participate in the study and then refer you to others
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Convenience: prioritises ease of access; useful when exploratory research is being conducted
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Example of each for the green marketing study?
4. Carry out the research
 Quantitative sampling:
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Random: Each individual in the population of interest has an equal likelihood of selection
 Will walking down the street asking tourists to fill out a survey result in a random sample?
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Stratified: Reproduction of the population, along whatever characteristics are deemed important for the
study (e.g. country of origin, gender, income, etc.)
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Example of each for the green marketing study?
Random:
Stratified:
4. Carry out the research
Interviews
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The use of an interview guide
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Simple questions that encourage complex responses
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Truly open-ended (in most cases)
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Stick to things the participant can actually tell you (how they feel about x; not how their employees feel about x).
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‘How’ often gives richer responses than ‘why’
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Be ready with follow-up questions
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Guide the interview, but don’t ask leading questions
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Examples of interview questions for the green marketing study?
4. Carry out the research
Surveys
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Keep the questions short
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Don’t double barrel
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Be precise
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Know your audience and define terms as needed (e.g. don’t assume everyone knows what ‘hospitality’ is)
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Make sure your scales make sense (e.g. don’t have ‘many’ and ‘several’ in the same scale because people
may not understand the difference)
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The answers you offer are extremely important to ensuring a robust study
5. Interpret your results: Qualitative data analysis
Need to find themes
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A theme could be something that most/all participants said
Something that no one or very few people said
Notable contradictions of convergences between the different interviewees’ responses
Something that strongly relates to prior literature
Something that strongly contradicts prior research
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Often non-linear and iterative (i.e. may go back and ‘re-do’ certain steps in the research progresses)
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Collection and analysis happen simultaneously – researcher is always ‘making sense’ of the data
5. Interpret your results: Quantitative data analysis
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Variance analysis
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Relationships between variables: causal relations, correlations
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Factor analysis
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Model testing
6. Discuss your findings
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Make a discussion based on your findings
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Show the theoretical importance of your findings
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Compare and contrast your findings with the extant literature (you have mentioned already in
your literature review section)
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Example:
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“We contribute to IM and opportunity literature by proposing a novel duality view and
conceptualization of the relations between discovery and creation in an FME context. Although
several IM scholars have studied FMEs (e.g., Ahi et al. 2017; Bradley and Gannon 2000), the FME
opportunity concept is scarcely addressed in IM literature (cf. Chandra, Styles, and Wilkinson
2012; Vasilchenko and Morrish 2011), and the duality view is new. We combine FMEs from IM
literature, opportunity concepts from entrepreneurship literature, and duality theory to improve
understanding of how firms find and construct international opportunities through FMEs….”
(Chetty, Karami, & Martin 2018, p. 88).
7. Provide managerial and policy making implications
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Practical implications of your findings for managers
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Practical implications of your findings for policy maker
Example:
“Our study offers implications for practitioners as well. Firstly, our results suggest that
internationalizing SMEs could benefit from experiential learning. Thus, founders and
managers of SMEs should encourage learning in the organization as it boosts the firms
international performance and long term competitive advantages…” (Karami & Tang, 2019, p. 23)
8. limitations and directions for future research
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Limitations of your research
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Directions for future research
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Example:
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“Research on the relationship and connections between opportunity discovery and creation during
internationalization is rare, and related research issues likely will draw IM scholars’ increasing attention.
Researchers should capitalize on these opportunities and also address our study’s limitations. First,
understanding the duality and linkages between opportunity discovery and creation in other research
contexts has the potential to make new contributions to the field. For example, exploring the mechanisms
by which opportunity discovery enables opportunity creation, and vice versa, in an innovation in large firms
context would be helpful. The likely connected processes of discovery and creation of innovation
opportunities, their relations with exploration and exploitation in subsidiaries of multinational firms, and
the role of headquarters in these processes and activities all deserve more attention and could be
approached from an IM perspective….” (Chetty, et al. 2018, p. 89).
9. Research report
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Abstract
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Introduction
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Literature review
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Methodology
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Analysis and results
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Discussion: theoretical implications, practical implications, limitations and future research directions
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Conclusion
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References
9. Report on the findings
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Ethics:
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Informed consent
Confidentiality / anonymity
Voluntary participation
Free to withdraw at any time
 See Moodle example
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Plagiarism
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APA
Plagiarism
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Original: As indicated by interviews with skiers and ski area insiders, non-local ground and air transport is set to
remain unaddressed as it is viewed as beyond the purview of ski areas. Ski areas demonstrate willingness to adopt
pro-environmental projects with near-future, quantifiable benefits. However, structures such as government
regulations, watchdog agencies, and industry organisations are needed to ensure all the environmental
implications of skiing (including non-local transport) are addressed…
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Plagiarism: Ski areas demonstrate willingness to adopt pro-environmental projects with near-future, quantifiable
benefits, but government regulations, watchdog agencies, and industry organisations are needed to ensure all the
environmental implications of skiing (including non-local transport) are addressed.
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Plagiarism: Ski areas demonstrate willingness to adopt pro-environmental projects with near-future, quantifiable
benefits, but government regulations, watchdog agencies, and industry organisations are needed to ensure all the
environmental implications of skiing (including non-local transport) are addressed (Spector, 2017).
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Plagiarism: While willing to engage in pro-environmental projects with more immediate and tangible results, the
skiing industry is in need of additional structures – such as industry alliances, watchdog groups, and regulatory
systems, to encourage issues such as non-local transport to be addressed.
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Not plagiarism: While willing to engage in pro-environmental projects with more immediate and tangible results,
the skiing industry is in need of additional structures – such as industry alliances, watchdog groups, and regulatory
systems, to encourage issues such as non-local transport to be addressed (Spector, 2017).
Quality research
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Quantitative:
 No errors (statistical errors, poorly-worded questions, poorly-worded answers, etc)
 Can be replicated – someone else doing a very similar study would find very similar results
 Bias is minimised
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Qualitative:
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Questions are well-worded
Got a lot of depth
Direct quotes are used to illustrate key themes and sub-themes
The same perspective/logic was used to analyse each interview response
Researcher was aware of their ‘positionality’ and took that into account (e.g. am I a tree-hugging skier? Or a petrol-head
snowmobiler?)
Application
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Moodle article
Research proposals
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See Moodle for sample proposals