Research Methods in Tourism

The aim of this course is to provide students with the basic tools for planning and conducting simple research projects and reporting on them. It starts presenting a simple approach on how to plan a research project and implement it applying the appropriate method in a multidisciplinary context, relevant for tourism. It then offers an overview of qualitative and quantitative methods followed by a more in depth treatment of selected analytical tools. The most important quantitative and qualitative concepts and their implementation in SPSS are presented and elaborated in group work.

Structural elements are:

• The research concept in a multidisciplinary context
• Planning a research project and transforming it into a proposal
• Range of research methods and literature review
• Primary and secondary data; sampling and surveys
• Qualitative and quantitative methods
• Statistical analysis
• Subsidiary and cross-cutting technique

The course will combine teaching and seminars in the computer lab with group work. An oral presentation of a research project based on the material presented in class is compulsory.

Textbook
A.J. Veal, Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism: A Practical guide, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 2006