Tourism Research Methods

Within the tourism industry there is a growing consensus on the need for research to investigate the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism. However, existing research methods texts are based solely on either the business approach or the social science approach to tourism. They often fail to provide real world examples of how to plan, implement or analyse tourism related research. This book aims to address this divide by integrating theory with practice through the inclusion of specific tourism research case studies alongside research theory. It considers a wide range of research issues, approaches and techniques with contributions from both experienced and new researchers.

Cultural tourism includes experiencing local culture, traditions and lifestyle, participation in arts-related activities, and visits to museums, monuments and heritage sites. This book reviews a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods applied to the field. It is suitable for students and researchers in tourism and leisure.

This introductory guide offers innovative ideas and strategies to students undertaking their first social science research work. Academically rigorous yet accessible, it uses a systematic step-by-step approach to illustrate the research process and its applications to the tourism industry. Students are presented with numerous examples and case studies, linking theory with practice. The textbook provides a balanced coverage of both qualitative and quantitative methods, accompanying students throughout the process of selecting a research topic and specifying research questions, aims and objectives. A range of pedagogical features such as discussion questions, practical tips and examples enable students to review the literature, understand models and methodologies, analyse and interpret data (quantitative and qualitative) and ultimately write up their findings. Featuring contributions by a group of academics with expertise in their respective fields, the book provides a comprehensive and engaging introduction to research methods. This is an essential resource to tourism students and will also be of interest to researchers in any social science subject.

Now in its fifth edition, Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism has become the ultimate reference text for both students enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and practising managers. This book combines comprehensive coverage of a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods with step-by step guidance through research software including Excel, SPSS and NVivo. Key features Coverage of both qualitative and quantitative research methods, ensuring a balanced approach to data collection and analysis Practical guidance on conducting research and writing reports, showing the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’ Detailed coverage of the development of conceptual frameworks for research, research design, analytical methods and the composition of research reports, providing everything required to conduct a research project International case studies and extensive examples from the leisure and tourism literature Questions, exercises and further reading for each chapter Extensive web-based support materials New to this edition The fifth edition has been fully updated throughout and includes additional material on: Management and policy-related research methods EndNote bibliographic referencing software Notes on additional methods including: big data, discourse analysis, multiple correspondence analysis, netnography/web-based research, people meters For the analysis of quantitative data, SPSS is updated to version 23 For qualitative data analysis, the guide to NVivo software is updated to version 11.

A step-by-step approach to guide students through the whole research process, from initial ideas, through to writing up and presenting the findings.

As research in tourism and hospitality reaches maturity, a growing number of methodological approaches are being utilized and, in addition, this knowledge is dispersed across a wide range of journals. Consequently there is a broad and multidisciplinary community of tourism and hospitality researchers whom, at present, need to look widely for support on methods. In this volume, researchers fulfil a pressing need by clearly presenting methodological issues within tourism and hospitality research alongside particular methods and share their experiences of what works, what does not work and where challenges and innovations lie.

'This is an excellent book which significantly contributes to tourism research and education. It takes a rigorous yet readable style to address twenty five of the most pertinent quantitative and qualitative techniques applied in tourism research. the book will appeal to a wider readership of social scientists as well as to scholars of tourism as each chapter provides a thorough overview and explanation of the techniques irrespective of their tourism application.' – Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University, UK This insightful book explores the most important established and emerging qualitative and quantitative research methods in tourism. the authors provide a detailed overview of the nature of the research method, its use in tourism, the advantages and limitations, and future directions for research. Each chapter is structured to provide information on: the nature of the technique and its evolution; background and types of problems that the technique is designed to handle; applications of the technique to tourism, including discussion of studies that have used the technique and their findings; advantages and limitations of the technique conceptually and for policy formulation; and further developments and applications of the technique in tourism research. Handbook of Research Methods in Tourism will appeal to social scientists, students as well as researchers in tourism who use quantitative and qualitative research techniques.

This volume seeks to expose and illustrate new approaches and thinking in qualitative methods that are being developed and implemented in tourism research. The contributions bring together various qualitative methods and approaches while also providing suggestions for the juxtaposition of qualitative and quantitative methods in mixed methods research. The book has been written with a cross-disciplinary approach which provides an insight into the art of research development from business, sociology and tourism perspectives. The chapters provide readers with a context and practical application examples for each method. They present a distinctive opportunity for social researchers from a range of disciplines, in particular tourism, to examine how to adapt the wide variety of qualitative approaches to their particular research needs.