Travel and Tourism Research - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 409

His entry into tourism came in 1985, when his company was hired
by the Canadian government to research Canada's image in the
United States and to develop a communications strategy for
overcoming a 15-year decline in market share. With more than
9,000 interviews, it was considered at that time to be the largest
study of tourism to be conducted in the United States.

WORDS ABOUT THE FUTURE
Research will continue to play a key role for tourism marketers,
providing them with the radar they need to navigate through the
rapidly evolving world of travelers' decision making. However, the
tools we use to survey consumers will continue to evolve to reflect
the public's preferred modes of communication. In the past few
years, we have witnessed a dramatic shift from mail and telephone
as survey methodologies to online interviews. In 2007, my
company migrated its syndicated Longwoods Travel USA 1 study
from mail panel to online, where we now invite 2 million panelists
to participate annually. The key benefits include unprecedented
sample size, rapid turnaround, flexibility, interactivity, and greater
respondent engagement.

Today, Bill's company invites 2 million Americans annually to
participate in its Longwoods Travel USA 1 syndicated research
program. It has provided strategic counsel for a number of major
brands, such as New York:I NY; USA: You've Seen the Films,

Now Visit the Set; Hawaii: The Islands of Aloha; Colorado:
Mountains and Much More; and Washington, D.C.: Power Trip.

˘

His work has been cited in broadcast and print media around the
world, including The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, the
Christian Science Monitor, and The Times of London. He has been
invited to speak at many industry functions, such as state
governor's conferences, The Brookings Institution, the Travel and
Tourism Research Association, the U.S. Economic Development
Administration, the American Marketing Association, the Advertis-
ing Research Foundation, the Public Relations Society of America,
and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research.
Blhasservedonboardsforthe Travel and Tourism Research
Association, Georgia Tech, Ryerson University, and Waterloo University,
and was appointed Honorary Citizen of New Jersey by Governor Florio.

Gazing at my crystal ball, I see continuing movement to the Web
for survey research, with a growing challenge in reaching
consumers on mobile devices. We will also struggle as an industry
to better understand and measure the influence of social media.
However, unlike most product categories, our scanners work at
check-in, not check-out, and so for destinations, survey data will
remain essential for understanding who comes, why, how much
money they spend, the activities they enjoy, and, most impor-
tantly, how much business was generated by their marketing
programs.

Advantages of the observational method are that it tends to be accurate and it can record
consumer behavior. It also reduces interviewer bias. Disadvantages are that it is much more costly than
the survey method, and it is not possible to employ in many cases. Finally, the observational method
shows what people are doing but does not tell why they are doing it. It cannot delve into motives,
attitudes, or opinions. If the why is important, this would not be a good method to use.

Experimental Method

The experimental method of gathering primary data involves setting up a test, a model, or an
experiment to simulate the real world. The essentials of the experimental method are the measure-

ment of variations within one or more activities while all other conditions and variables are being
controlled. The experimental method is very hard to use in tourism research because of the dif culty of
holding variables constant. Tourism researchers have no physical laboratory in which to work.
However, it is possible for resort areas to run advertising experiments or pricing experiments or
to develop simulation models to aid in decision making. Such test marketing is being conducted
successfully, and as time passes, we will see the experimental method being used more.

WHO DOES TRAVEL RESEARCH?

Many organizations use and conduct . The types of firms and organizations that

engage in travel research include government, educational institutions, consultants, trade associa-
tions, advertising agencies, media, hotels and motels, airlines and other carriers, attractions, and food
service organizations.

travel research