Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

4.2 What is sampling?

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When you are planning to do research in the sector, it is unlikely that you will be

able to ask all the individuals in the sample. Let us imagine that you want to find out

the views of individuals who have experienced an event such as Glastonbury. There

is a wide range of individuals who attend this event and it will be impossible to ask

all their opinions, especially if you are doing the research yourself or you have a

small team of researchers. You will therefore have to select a sample of attendees

using a chosen method of sampling. You could select the respondents purely at

random as they leave the site at the end of the event. Or you could decide just to

select attendees from a particular age group at random. You could use convenience

sampling and only ask attendees that you know personally.

All of these different methods of sampling will have their own advantages and

disadvantages and will influence whether or not you will be able to analyse your

results using statistical techniques. The method of sampling will also influence the

claims you can make in your results and conclusions. This chapter will consider the

different methods of sampling that you can use and highlight the advantages and

disadvantages of the different approaches.