After carrying out further literature research and exchanging ideas with various people, I finally was able to formulate my draft research proposal. And here it is:
Proposed Project Title/Broad Question:
Group package tours within a special interest tourism context: a contradiction?
An exploratory investigation of the motivations and determinants of decision-making of German participants of a special interest group package tour to Brazil.
Research Objectives/ Questions/ Hypothesis:
The literature suggests that special interest tourism is the provision of customised experiences driven by the primary motivation of a special interest which can include activities, themes or destinations. The special interest tourist is described as the ‘new’ tourist who seeks individualised, unique, authentic, novel, meaningful and participatory experiences and immersion in the culture and physical environment of the host communities.
In contrast, a group package tour (GPT) tends to offers little flexibility and interaction with local culture.
This raises the question how group package tours fit into the idea of special interest tourism?
Not much research is carried out in the field of long-haul outbound group package tours. Interestingly, studies in Asia indicate that the itinerary of the tour is not a significant travel motive and determinant of decision-making, but price, right-timing, safety, convenience, recommendation from friends and reputation of the operator.
This seems to contradict with the idea of special interest tourism.
Since the existing research in this field concentrate on the Asian market, I am curious if an investigation upon German participants of a claimed special interest group package tour will lead to the same results.
The objectives of this research are to identify:
· who participates a special interest group package tour,
· what motivates them,
· why they join a group tour and travel not as FIT and
· how they choose the operator and package, what are their selection criteria.
Based upon these, the overall questions, if group package tours contradict the idea of special interest tourism and if they can fulfil the needs of the postmodern, ‘new’ tourists, will be answered.
What I am not so sure about yet, is the research approach and methodologies I will use in order to achieve my objectives. I have concerns about the accessibility of information and informants. Tour operators need to give me access to their data and provide contact to their customers. As an alternative I could participate at a tour, but since group tour departures are generally depending on group size and thus not guaranteed, this approach might also be problematic.
What do YOU think? Maybe you have some experience in research and could give me some advice.
I would love to hear your opinion!
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AntwortenLöschenHi Sara. It is very interesting topic to me. because many Korean package group travel to around the world with their own special interest. For instance, pilgramage to the Holy land(specially Israel, Turkey). I am sure that some tourists who have a special motivation to their chosen destination want to join the package tour because of facilities of transport and hotel, also safety and educational(guide) purpose.
AntwortenLöschenAnyway Mass tourists are not equal 'package tour tourists'.
I am not sure what kind of way you wish to research for your topic. But I think quantitative research might fit for your topic to prove your idea with measurable data. What do you think?
Thanks for your comment Yeonsun. Actually, all journal articles and studies that I found about group package tours were concerned with the Asian market :-) This type of travel is very popular there, why studies, often quantitative nature, have been carried out there. Since this specific market segment is rather small in Germany - or Europe in general (the majority of special interest travellers are FIT), studies are rare, if any were carried out at all (so far I haven't found one).
AntwortenLöschenAlthough I do believe in mixed-method approach, quantitative analysis seems to be impractical in this particular case due to the small size of the market and moreover the difficulty in getting access to the data (customers of special interest group package tours). It probably will be impossible to get a satisfying sample size and therefore qualitative approach seems to be more appropriate. Even more, because I want to research how the concept of group package tours which implies the standardisation of the tourism product, fits into the idea of special interest tourism and the uniqueness of the experience. Qualitative research helps to explore and understand a topic better, we know little about. It will hardly be possible to answer this question with a standardised questionnaire... However, I agree with you, that in a bigger market such as Asia quantitative analysis may be appropriate to analyse tourists' motivation and decision-making.