Analysis And Examples Of Tourism Research Methods

Tourism is a complex phenomenon involving multi-facets of society, economy, culture and politics etc. Researchers from different backgrounds such as geography, sociology, history, anthropology, psychology, economy, politics, planning, management, marketing draw much attention to tourism, and having conducted many studies from different perspectives based on the theory basis and the methodology of every discipline. However, as a independent discipline tourism research must form itself basic theory and unique methodology. While Chinese tourism research have harvested many fruits, the research contents are not enough comprehensive, the methodology is too single. This paper analyzes tourism research methods completely, and provides examples of some methods In chapter one –introduction, the author concisely analyzes the quality of tourism phenomenon, the knowledge development about tourism, the scope and discipline tradition of tourism research, the shortage of Chinese tourism research method, and the meaning, purpose, and methods of this paper. The second chapter reviews tourism research methods overseas and home. The quantitative methods are dominant in overseas, but in recent yeas, qualitative methods draw more attention. The main research methods in China are qualitative, and the technique and mean are single. The third chapter compares the characteristics of qualitative and quantitative methods, listing some used commonly methods overseas, constructing methodology system of tourism research, and analyzing the applying fields of every method. The fourth chapter gives examples to some methods, including theory analysis, content analysis, open-ended questions, descriptive statistics, time series, factor analysis, regression analysis, correlate analysis, chi-square test, T-test, analysis of variance and so on. The fifth chapter indicates the initiative and shortage of this paper, and future research direction. This research makes a systematic analysis on tourism research methods in China firstly, puts forward the "multi-stratums cake"concept, constructs methodology system of tourism research, and tests some methods by particular research works which give examples to their use.