Research Methods in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management

6.5.5 Case study

To illustrate the do’s and don’ts of interviewing, the following is an

example of some initial questions on a site visitor survey. Whilst the

transcripts are clearly hypothetical, the questions are selected from a

questionnaire which was used by one of the authors in a consultancy

contract.

Interview A

Interviewer A Good morning, Sir. I am carrying out a survey on behalf of

Torbay Borough Council to find out your views of Cockington Country

Park. Would you please help us by answering a few strictly confidential

questions which will take no more than 10 minutes?

Respondent A OK, you can ask me.

Question 1 Where have you come from today? (Instructions are to allow the

respondent to answer and simply code within or outside Torbay)

Respondent A I’ve come from Paignton today (within Torbay).

Question 2 Is that your home or are you on holiday?

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Respondent A I am on holiday at the moment with my family.

Question 3 What is the purpose of your visit here today? (Instructions to the

interviewer are to allow the respondent to answer freely and probe for a full

answer)

Respondent A Well, as I said, we’re on holiday and we decided to have a

day away from the beach.

Interviewer A Uh-huh.

Respondent A Oh, and we saw this place advertised in the hotel, so we

thought we’d give it a try.

Interviewer A That’s interesting; was there anything else which was

important?

Respondent A Well yes, the kids liked the idea of a horse and cart ride and

we decided to have a family treat here with a picnic and ride back to the sea

front.

Question 4a Have you ever been to Cockington before? (This is a filter

question: if the respondent indicates that they have been before, 4b asks

how often they visit Cockington and a prompt card is issued showing

categories, e.g. daily, weekly, fortnightly)

Respondent A No, this is our first visit.

Interview continues successfully.