Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Aims and objectives of the research

The aim of this research project is:

To determine the factors responsible for tourist satisfaction in

Tintagel by exploring the requirements, expectations and overall

satisfaction of tourists on-site.

In order to achieve the research aim, the following objectives need to be

met:

Investigate factors contributing to tourist satisfaction

Investigate the role of motivations as a contributor to satisfaction

Investigate the impact of on-site experiences on tourist satisfaction.

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Specifically, to Tintagel:

Determine if tourist satisfaction is influenced by historic myth and

legend.

Sampling is a cost-effective way of gaining information on a section of

the public that can be used to draw conclusions about the larger

population (Brunt, 1997). The sample population for this study was

composed of visitors to Tintagel in February 2016, including tourists,

locals and day trippers (Veal, 1997): 300 questionnaires were printed and

taken to Tintagel over the February half-term, and 242 were completed

by respondents; 2 were excluded due to missing or incomplete data,

which left a total of 240 questionnaires to be used for analysis. 

Table 4.2

outlines the number of questionnaires completed throughout the data

collection period, which was influenced by researcher availability,

weather conditions and destination footfall.

Self-completed questionnaires were distributed by several trained

research assistants, who approached respondents with a brief overview of

the purpose of the study, before asking respondents if they would like to

complete the questionnaire. The research assistants were able to give help

in completing the questionnaires, as required by respondents (Veal,

1997). As the population was unknown, random sampling was used, and

research assistants used the next-to-pass technique to ensure bias was

removed from the sampling process (Brunt, 1997).