Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Step 3: When to interview in relation to the visit

For the majority of surveys, the end of the visit is normally the best time to approach

people for an interview. In this sense, visitors to the tourist attraction will have had

chance to make use of all the site facilities. If interviewing takes place during the

visit, respondents may not be able to answer all the questions because they may not

have had the opportunity to gain an opinion about facilities they have yet to make

use of.

An exception to this was undertaken by Brunt (1990). Site surveys were used as one

of several methods in establishing why visitors had selected certain tourist attractions

for their day trips. In this particular instance, it was found, after the pilot stage, that

interviewing people as they arrived at the site provided the best results. This was

because some respondents found that the experience of the visit (whether positive or

negative) caused difficulty in remembering why they had decided to visit the site in

the first place. A typical response to an open question of ‘why did you decide to visit

this site today?’ was ‘I am not sure, but we are certainly not coming back’. Hence,

interviewing people at the end of their visit proved unsatisfactory. However, most

site surveys at tourist attractions require respondents to indicate what they feel about

specific aspects of the site they have just visited. Thus, the most practical time to

interview is at the end of the visit.