Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Methods of coping where sampling frames are

incomplete

Thus, there may be many instances where you are faced with the problem that

developing a sampling frame, and hence selecting a true and reliable sample from it,

is fraught with difficulties. It is easy at this point to fall into the trap of assuming that

it is possible to compensate for all the potential errors in a sampling frame by simply

increasing the sample size. Whilst it is true that, other things being equal, a larger

sample stands a better chance of being more representative of the population than a

smaller sample, a sample that is fundamentally flawed remains biased.

Where sampling frames are not available, complete or are otherwise suspect,

additional aspects of the population can be considered to develop a procedure to

assist in the better selection of a sample. These steps can be considered before and

after the data collection.

To illustrate the types of problem here, consider the situation you face if you want to

undertake a site visitor survey at a tourist attraction. This example shows the

problems that exist with sampling and that will also occur if you want to undertake a

guest survey in a hotel or to discover individual perceptions of events.

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We can assume in this case that the site manager is unaware of who the visitors are

(in terms of age, gender, type of group, etc.), where they have come from or their

attitudes towards certain aspects of the site. In the main, answers to these questions

are the objectives of your survey. The method of data collection for at least a part of

the survey has been decided as a face-to-face interview with users of the site. This

type of scenario is quite common in this area and the development of a suitable

sampling frame requires careful consideration. The following steps represent a

pragmatic way that you can approach this type of problem: