Travel and Tourism Research - Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies - page 412

human relations techniques, employee management, advertising, food and beverage supplies and
services, and myriad other related information.

Airlines and Other Carriers

Airlines and other carriers offer services designed for the business and vacation traveler. Because of
their needs and the importance of research to their operations, airlines and other carriers will usually
have their own market research departments to conduct ongoing studies of their customers and the
market. They are also frequent employers of outside consultants.

Attractions

The most ambitious private attractions in the country are the major theme parks, and research has
played a major role in the success of these enterprises. That research has run the gamut from
feasibility studies

s thinking still dominates the industry. The
Disney formula of immaculate grounds, clean and attractive personnel, high-quality shops, tidy
restrooms, and clean restaurants is still the consumers

to management research. Walt Disney '

preference today. Research shows that if
attractions are not clean, they are not likely to be successful.

'

Food Service

Much of the pioneering work in the use of research by restaurants has been done by franchises and
chains because what will work in one location will typically work in others, resulting in a large payoff
from funds invested in research. All travel firms, whether they are restaurants, airlines, hotels, or other
hospitality enterprises, need to be in touch with their markets and find new and better ways of
marketing to sell seats, increase load factors, and achieve favorable occupancy ratios.

THE STATE OF THE ART

Early tourism researchwas criticized for being too descriptive and lacking rigor. Today, travel research runs
from simple fact gathering to complex mathematical models. Tourism researchers utilize virtually every
quantitative and qualitative technique available. An examination of tourism research studies reveals that
multidimensional scaling (MDS), conjoint analysis, correspondence analysis, cohort analysis, structural
equation modeling (SEM), linear structural relationships (LISREL), analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis
of covariance (ANCOVA), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant analysis, factor
analysis, canonical correlation, cluster analysis, least squares, time series, repertory grid scaling, chi-
square, multiple regression, simulation models, diary panels, case studies, content analysis, focus groups,
word association, and ethnographic research techniques are in use by tourism researchers today.

Journals

The Journal of Travel Research was the first scholarly journal published in the tourism research eld in
North America in 1972. It was soon followed by the Annals of Tourism Research in 1973. Prior to 1972,
only five journals related to tourism existed:

1. Tourism Review, which was the first tourism journal and was first published in 1946 by the

International Association of Scienti c Experts in Tourism (AIEST) in St. Gallen, Switzerland

2. Turizam (now Tourism), first published in Croatia in 1956

3. World Leisure Journal, first published by World Leisure in 1958