Qualitative research methods within a multi-disciplinary approach forCultural Tourism.
Binkhorst, Esther
Dekker, den, Teun
Melkert, Marjan, editor
Vos, Kathleen
Introduction
1 Qualitative research of cultural tourism
1.1. The cultural tourist
1.2. The cultural tourist product
2. Virtus in medio
2.1. Qualitative and Quantitative research
2.2. Multi-disciplinary research
3.Value and experience
3.1 Value
3.2 Experience
Conclusion
Summary
References
As the working title for this paper was “Beyond the quantitative: qualitative research methods for cultural tourism”, the motto for this paper may be this: “When you’ve seen beyond yourself – then you may find, peace of mind, is waiting there – And the time will come when you see we’re all one and life flows on within you and without you.”[1]
Introduction
G. Richards (2005) observes: “There is a wealth of studies that have been undertaken on cultural tourism in recent years, most of which take their justification from the increasing importance of cultural tourism in global and local markets. However, much of this discussion is based on conjecture rather than on empirical data.”[2]
Conjecture is understandably not welcome when investigating cultural tourism. Therefore the cultural tourist has been and is subject of empirical research since 1992 when the ATLAS Special Interest Group on Cultural Tourism started organizing worldwide surveys. These surveys provide us with valuable quantitative information on the cultural tourist and his behavior.
But there is al lot more to be investigated in Cultural Tourism than the cultural tourist and not only in a quantitative way too. But, if there is little or no quantitative research incorporated in research, that does not mean that there is no “rigorous and academic theoretical framework” to observe, as M.K. Smith states in her book Issues in Cultural Tourism Studies in 2002.
What this framework may look like is what this discussion paper tries to sketch. The content shows that it is not the difference between quantitative and quantitative that matters. Both approaches are valuable and in many cases will go side by side in issues of cultural tourism. Yet, for didactic reasons, some of the qualitative approaches that may be applied with their methodologies will be described. For the same reason the field has been divided in the cultural tourist on the one, and the cultural tourism product on the other hand.
In most issues relating to cultural tourism, quantitative and qualitative go side by side will be explained. Then the opinion that cultural tourism studies should be multi-disciplined in nature in order to do justice to the subject matter will be presented. To end this paper values and experiences will be dwelled on as two issues within cultural tourism that show up frequently. These issues are not easily to be researched but the paper proposes two approaches.
Nevertheless, before starting the discussion on methodology, it is important to take notion that Smith (2002) observes: “The theory in this book hence serves to provide a conceptual framework for the discussion of pertinent issues rather than being an end in itself”. That is the way the authors like to see this discussion paper too.
1 Qualitative research of cultural tourism
1.1.The cultural tourist
The tourist as human being
Tourism development and the study thereof are often hindered by the way tourism is claimed and framed. Driven by an economic growth perspective, tourism developers in their political surroundings allow(ed) tourism to grow at the costs of natural, cultural, historical, and other original settings. We claim here that the starting point for tourism development should be the human being in relation to its time spatial context. This vision is very much inspired by the ethnographic perspective. For tourism this implicates an innovative perspective. It means ideally not to separate between supply and demand, company and customer, tourist and host, tourism and non-tourism or ‘other’ spaces, etc. but viewing tourism as a holistic network of actors connected in experience environments in which all actors operate from different time spatial contexts. A central role for the human being and thinking in experience networks is needed also because of the blurring boundaries between tourism, art, culture, sport, hobby, school, work, etc. that are giving the traditional approach a hard time. When is someone actually a tourist? When is someone a cultural tourist? What hobbies, activities and experiences are considered to be (cultural) tourism experiences? Is it possible to distinguish between someone’s (tourism) activities and cultural (tourism) activities?
To understand the phenomena tourism, but another important step ahead, to develop tourism, the main source for input is hidden in each human being who eventually becomes a tourist at some times or who, from one of his experience environments, comes into contact with tourism sooner or later. A tourism network approach facilitates including other actors as well who might be involved in the creation of tourism experiences, such as the travel intermediaries, those offering accommodation, heritage sites and those who protect and maintain them, events and those who organize and participate in them, the natural environment and those who protect and maintain it, the makers and users of Internet and other technologies; in sum, anyone and anything involved in the tourism network.
Tourism experience networks
In tourism, the ‘experience environment’ is made up of all people and things that surround the tourist. This not only counts for when people are travelling but also before the decision to travel is being taken or after returning home, e.g. in the daily home environment. So this is actually when all experience environments in which individuals move around come alive.
Consequently, each person is surrounded by a unique ‘tourism experience network’ of all stakeholders involved in his or her tourism experiences, whether they are real, virtual or even in dreams. The argument that is made here to consider tourism as an experience network in which various actors co-create as to engage in tourism experiences relates very much to what Van der Duim (2005) called ‘tourismscapes’.
Tourismscapes is the complex process of ordering of people and things. Such a tourism experience network is immense and connects the human being with: the people he travels with (friends, partner, family, special interest group, colleagues, etc.), the Internet, virtual travel communities, travel agencies, tour operators, suppliers of transport, hoteliers, guides, local entrepreneurs offering activities at the destination whether it be passive sightseeing or active participation, the locals, the things to do and see at the destination such as attractions, typical landmarks, museums, heritage sites, events, natural characteristics, etc., technology, and so on, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies that shape the conditions of his travel, etc. Figure xx is a simple representation of such a tourism experience network.
The tourism experience network approach forces us to put the human being in the centre. Not the tourist but the human being. First of all, any tourist is a person or actor in a home environment (see Figure xx).
This is where he or she will usually spend most of the time and where lots of memorable social experiences will be undergone. Besides in the home environment, people spend much time as well on obligations like work and school. The network in which the person acts basically guides him or her through life and changes accordingly. The need for a tourism experience might evolve at a certain moment, which changes the person’s network consequently. Other actors will be sought or links with existing actors will be strengthened to achieve one’s objectives to fulfil the need to travel (see Figure xx).
Finally, when the person went through the travel decision-making process he or she will leave the daily experience environment for a holiday (see Figure xx) to return again to the home environment after travel (see Figure xx).
The first two experience environments are often neglected in tourism studies. When talking about a tourist, we routinely start building our images of someone coming from (probably our own) western, developed areas with the freedom, time and money to travel to other areas outside his daily living environment during free time. Moreover, we would imagine the tourist either when travelling to or while being at the destination. We usually do not consider him a tourist yet while he is still in his daily context. And according to most definitions, he is not at that moment. But, the daily context is exactly where ‘a tourist’ spends most of his time and where decisions are being taken about next trips and where a lifestyle might reflect a travel style. Certain newspapers and magazines drop into ‘the tourist’s’ mailbox regularly; certain TV channels are watched; donations to certain organizations are being paid; certain souvenirs in the living environment and clothes in the wardrobe remind about previous trips; books, CD’s and DVD’s on the shelves tell about art, culture, music, painting, pottery, history, travel destinations, etc.; favourite bars, restaurants or clubs are visited; certain websites connect the ‘tourist’ through the Internet with the rest of the world; stories and experiences are exchanged with family members, colleagues and friends - in the direct living environment or elsewhere in the world -; a certain type of work or education is shaping ‘the tourist’s’ life, etc. By studying the various experience environments of the daily context, researchers could get to know a tourist, or better said human being better.
New research methods
Conventional research methods can be sufficient to register tourism behaviour, but when researchers really want to understand the tourist as a human being, innovative methods are needed to explore his experience environments. Two main developments can be distinguished in innovative methods. Firstly, the development from top down to bottom up approaches. Dialogues between equal partners are taking over traditional top down methods. Secondly, a change can be observed from real to virtual methods. The use of virtual worlds like the Internet and Second Life are becoming common tools. Those worlds provide numerous possibilities of innovative ways of doing both qualitative and quantitative research.
Figure xx shows a wide range of research methods; from the more conventional methods to the more innovative.
Example of using websites as research tool: case IKEA
The central theme of a Dutch website initiated by IKEA is ‘Design Your Own Life’. The website aims at getting insight into the way people shape their own lives and enjoy living. A research by TNS-NIPO (Haarhuis, 2006) forms the basis of the website. Visitors can discuss topics on a forum, do tests and read tips to learn more about themselves. IKEA as a company can learn a lot from the input visitors provide them with. The website is an example of a bottom up approach where information is gathered virtually.
Example of geotracking: cases Noam Shoval
Geotracking takes the investigation of Human Spatial Behaviour to a new dimension. New technologies provide researchers with other possibilities to track tourists during their journey. Today there are two main tracking technologies available, satellite navigation systems and land-based navigations systems (Shoval & Isaacson, 2006:01, 2006:02).
Example of experience tours: Co-lab Sitges
The Co-lab is an apartment annex office in the Spanish littoral village Sitges, where tourism practice and research go hand in hand. A type of tourism based on the principle of co-creation is developed there to showcase the possibilities for innovative tourism development. This means on the one hand, that locals participate in enhancing the experience of the tourist and on the other hand, the tourist itself can play an active role in the co-creation of his tourism experience. At this moment, real life experiences are being developed but the aim is to create an experience environment in which both tourists and locals can also virtually shape and share their experiences, a tool to collect research data at the same time. Besides the traditional questionnaire and (in-depth) interview, one of the research methods used in the Co-lab to get insight into how tourists experience the destination and their holiday in general, is to have them picture their holiday through their eyes during the free ‘do it yourself tour’. The data will be used to create a (virtual) book written, or better said pictured, by tourists about their holiday and the destination. These data will be shared with anyone whose experience environments come across.
And much more…
- New Zealand Travel Café, Tokyo
(a restaurant/bar combined with tourist information centre)
- W hotels - PRIDE 365
(W hotels special program for the gay, lesbian and transgender community)
- Virtual Aloft
(Starwood hotels innovation program through Second Life)
- Pop-up Hotels
(stylish hotels on temporary and unexpected places)
- Yellow Arrow
(a user build community ‘making a new map of the world’)
- Audio Snacks / N8 geluiden
(travel/museum information through user generated mp3)
- Fuel for travel
(digital system for e.g. mp3 and maps at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport)
- Yvette, the hotel matchmaker
(Joie de Vivre Boutique Hotels unique hotel seeking system)
- I AMsterdam - I Ambassadors
(getting to know Amsterdam by getting to know its locals)
- Heavenly Bed at Home
(buy you a Heavenly Bed of Westin for at home)
- Accomplice New York
(discover New York in a new way)
- TIME Person of the Year – You
(the global virtual community as great influencer)
- Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel
(learn to discover new places and to look with different eyes)
- Hipoqih
(geotracking for everyone)
- KLM Club China
(connecting KLM business customers)
Blurring boundaries
All examples mentioned above show a similar tendency: the blurring boundaries between tourism, art, culture, sport, hobby, school, work, etc. like described earlier in this chapter. When acknowledging those blurring boundaries and keeping in mind the developments from top down to bottom up and from real to virtual approaches, abundant possibilities are at hand in order to be able to understand the tourist as human being and develop the phenomena tourism. Much more is needed than a questionnaire in order to do so.