After the first meeting with my supervisor, my research project will now follow a slightly different direction. The overall question - how group package tours fit into the idea of special interest tourism - remains, however, I will take now a different approach in trying to answer this question, not focusing anymore on tourist motivation.
My supervisor agreed with me that it may be difficult, if not impossible, to get access to the customers of special interest tour operators. Therefore, she suggested to make a content analysis of travel brochures and operators' websites to find out how suppliers communicate the uniquesness of the product despite of the standardisation of the group package tour to its customers. Additionally, I may carry out interviews with suppliers of special interest group package tours.
To narrow my topic, I can focus on sit tours to Brazil organized by German tour operators. If there are not enough, I may reconsider more destinations or outgoing markets.
To sum up, my research will focus now on the supply-side rather than the demand-side as I was unsure about from the beginning of my proposal. Although I first preferred to analyse the demand-side, I am now really happy with the turn and can 'see the research in my mind's eye' :-)
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