Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

Step 2: When should data be collected?

In deciding on what days to interview, consideration should be given to the patterns

of visits at the tourist attraction over the season. For example, the number of visits

made to the attraction is likely to be different at the beginning and end of the season

than in the middle or following a significant advertising campaign. Moreover, there

may be particular days when the usage of the site is untypical when compared to the

rest of the year. Special events and visits by celebrities or public holidays could

easily distort a sample drawn where the number of days allocated for interviewing

included a high proportion of days when the site was unusually overcrowded.

In addition, variations in site usage can occur on a daily and weekly basis. At

informal recreation sites such as country parks, dog walkers may visit the site on a

very regular basis, perhaps early in the morning. Later in the day, the site might

attract groups of people who visit the site less frequently than the dog walkers but

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make more use of the facilities provided. Furthermore, on weekdays, there may be a

higher proportion of retired people than on weekend days when more families are

likely to visit. At many tourist attractions, there will be differences between the

number and type of people within and outside the main school holiday periods over

and above seasonal variations.

In deciding when to interview, an awareness of the sorts of variations on different

types of day is important. Ideally, the number of days selected should reflect these

variations. The number of days needed will be related to the sample size, length of

interview, number of interviewers and characteristics of the site. Interviewing should

take place on at least three days of a similar type.