Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Methodology

A case study approach was adopted to carry out this research.

Semi-structured interviews were employed to gather

information from key tourism industry experts. A questionnaire

designed for the first part of the research was based on

published literature and consisted of 12 multiple-choice

questions as well as open-ended questions to solicit personal

opinions. The questionnaires were distributed to guests staying

at the Casino Group of Hotels, Cochin and Nature Trails, and

Yercaud during one week from 8 to 14 February 2010. This

hotel chain was chosen because it already had an interest in

agritourism and it was anticipated that its guests were likely to

be interested in the concept.

The second part of the research, after the analysis of the

questionnaires, used a semi-structured interview which was also

designed with reference to the published literature. Three

interviews were designed as follows: one for the representative

of the Agritourism Development Corporation of India, the

second for interviews with successful hoteliers in the southern

and northern parts of India, and the third for interviews with

eminent farmers from different places in the southern and

northern parts of India. All of these respondents were personally

chosen by the first author of this article because of their

perceived interest in the concept of agritourism. One hundred

questionnaires were distributed and 75 of them were completed

and returned. Some of the respondents even gave some valuable

suggestions from an agritour they had taken part in.

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version

15.0 and Microsoft Excel version 2007 for Windows Vista were

used for analysing the questionnaire and interviews,

respectively. An ethical code was developed for the research in

order to keep the data collected confidential when required and

to handle it correctly.

Source: ‘Agritourism in India: the potential for sustainable

development and growth’ by Avantikka Raghunandan,

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supervised by Susan Horner, César Ritz Colleges, Switzerland,

2010.