Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Custom Research
Custom research is company speci
c and addresses the questions, issues, and solutions that are unique
to a client. It is proprietary, conducted for a single company alone, and is speci
c to your products
and services. Custom research could involve unique questions regarding market size, market share,
demand forecast, brand performance, industry trends, pricing, market segmentation, or any other
special subject.
THE TRAVEL RESEARCH PROCESS
The key to good travel research is to de
ne the problem and work through it in a systematic procedural
manner to a
final solution. The purpose of this section is to describe brie
y the basic procedures that
will produce a good research result.
First, the problemmust be de
ned or identi
ed. Then you are in a position
to proceed in a systematic manner.
2. Conduct a situation analysis.
1.
Identify the problem.
(environmental scan). In this step, you gather and digest all the
information available and pertinent to the problem. The purpose is to become familiar with all the
available information to make sure that you are not repeating someone else
s work or that you
have not overlooked information that will provide a ready solution to the problem. The situation
analysis is an exhaustive search of all the data pertinent to the company, the product, the
industry, the market, the competition, advertising, customers, suppliers, technology, the econ-
omy, the political climate, and similar matters. Knowledge of this background information will
help you to sort out the likely causes of the problem and will lead to more ef
cient, productive
research. The organization will get the most from the research result when it understands the
organization
'
s internal environment, as well as its goals, strategies, desires, resources, and
constraints. In addition to a trip to the library, the Internet is an ideal tool to use in conducting the
situation analysis.
3. Conduct an informal investigation.
'
After getting background information from available
sources, you will talk informally with consumers, distributors, and key people in the industry to
get an even better feel for the problem. During both the situation analysis and informal
investigation, you should be developing hypotheses that can be tested. The establishment of
hypotheses is one of the foundations of high-quality research and is a valuable step in the
problem-solving process. A hypothesis is a supposition, a tentative proposal, or a possible
solutiontoaproblem.Insomewaysitcouldbelikenedtoadiagnosis.Ifyourautomobilequit
running on the interstate, you might hypothesize that: (1) you were out of gas, (2) the fuel
pump had failed, or (3) you had
filter problems. An investigation would enable you to accept or
reject these hypotheses.
4. Develop a formal research design.
Once adequate background information has been developed
and the problem has been de
ned against this background, it is time to develop the speci
c
scienti
c procedure or design for carrying out the total investigation or research project. This step
is the heart of the research process. Here you have to develop the hypotheses that will be tested
and determine the types and sources of data that are to be obtained. Are secondary sources
available, or will it be necessary to conduct primary research? If primary research has to be
conducted, then it is necessary to develop the scienti
c sample, the questionnaires, or other data-
collection instruments and any instruction sheets and coding methods and tabulation forms.
Finally, it is necessary to conduct a pilot study to test all of the foregoing elements. The results are
then written up in a detailed plan that serves as a guide that any knowledgeable researcher should
be able to follow and conduct the research satisfactorily.
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