Three qualitative techniques were used, namely focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and case studies. Findings emerging from the qualitative research were used in
conjunction with current literature to generate a theoretical framework. Specific hypotheses of the framework will be tested through a survey instrument in the quantitative component of this research.
Qualitative data analysis can play an important role in the initial discovery and
explanation of consumer behavior and travel booking decision processes that have not been extensively studied by other researchers. Consequently, one of the main objectives in the qualitative research is to gain preliminary insights into decision problems that are specific to leisure travel planning that will help refine particular hypotheses before subjecting them to statistical analyses. Another reason this qualitative research method was chosen is that it is both economical and timely and thus suitable for the research project.
The quantitative methods used are outlined in sections 4.1 and 4.2. Such methods take the positivistic approach, the purpose of which is to test hypotheses that come out of the literature review and qualitative study. Social scientists use theories to predict behavior.
An important role of the methodologist is to try to refine them, to see if they hold true under all conditions. It is through efforts to disconfirm theories that we extend our general knowledge of human behavior. One way to test a theory is to derive predictions or hypotheses from it and then test those hypotheses. Therefore, after the result of two focus groups, over forty semi-structured interviews, and nine case studies is presented, a Conceptual Framework is proposed in Figure 9 that incorporates the qualitative data and the review of literature. It is believed this Framework accurately describes the processes by which leisure travelers plan and purchase travel products with the assistance of online and offline aids and a part of this framework will be used to test selected hypotheses.
The qualitative research relied on the collection of detailed amounts of primary data from relatively small samples of subjects by asking questions. The first data came from a focus group, followed by data from semi-structured interviews, more data from a second focus group, and finally case studies. These stages of data collection occurred over a three-year time frame. A total of 71 subjects participated in the focus groups, interviews,
40 and case studies. Multi-phase studies such as these are a good way to maximize
information gathering and this theoretical sampling technique is well accepted as a sound research method.
This grounded theory approach is justified since previous researchers have not yet identified all of the concepts and the relationships among them pertaining to how consumers plan and purchase leisure travel products with the assistance of online and offline aids.
Focus group research involves bringing together a small group of 6-12 people for an interactive and spontaneous discussion. Guided by a facilitator, an unstructured
discussion lasts for about three hours. The moderator will encourage group members to talk in detail about their vacations and how they planned them. Many ideas, attitudes, feelings, and experiences emerge usually emerge through a session. The overall goal of the focus group is to give the researcher as much information as possible about how people regard traveling and travel planning. The success of focus group research depends on the group dynamics, the willingness of members to participate in the dialogue, and the moderator’s ability to keep the discussion on topic. The fundamental idea of focus group research is that one person’s response will elicit comments from other members, thus generating a spontaneous interchange among all the participants.
The initiation of the research began about 4 years ago when a travel website named DiscoverTheIslands.Com acted as a sponsor of the research. In order to encourage people to visit the website the company used a vacation giveaway that required
contestants to submit some basic demographic and contact information in a Contest Entry Form. Over four thousand entries were received. Six contestants from the city of Seattle in the State of Washington were selected for the first focus group held in July of 2004.
The planned overall objective of this focus group was to understand the participants’
perspective on issues, frame of reference, way of thinking, typical vocabulary when dealing with the topic of travel, and to test some questions that could be used for semi-structured personal interviews that would follow in August of that year. Some interviews were conducted by telephone, and others were held in two shopping malls. The focus group consisted of three men and three women including two couples. The age range of participants was fairly wide with one young person 20 years of age, and the oldest couple was in their early fifties. The three-hour session was recorded with audio and video equipment. The results of this focus group session are discussed in section 3.2.1.
As a qualitative technique, an interview involves an interviewer asking subjects a set of semi-structured, probing questions usually in a face-to-face setting. This setting could be the subject’s home or a centralized interviewing location that is convenient for the
subject. Interviews can also be conducted by telephone. In this data collection method the interviewer uses probing questions to obtain more data on the topic from the subject.
Sometimes this means taking the subject’s initial response and turning it into a question.
The more a subject talks about a topic, the more likely he or she is to reveal underlying attitudes, motives, emotions, and behaviors. The interviewer should be able to articulate
41 the questions in a direct and clear manner so that the subject understands what he or she is responding to.
The overall research objective of the interviews was to probe into the assumptions, motivations, experiences and feelings that underlie the attitudes and opinions expressed by some focus group participants. Subjects gave permission to record the interviews using a tape recorder. In addition, all questions were arranged on a single sheet of paper with spaces after each question in order to make notes of interest such as the demeanor of an interviewee and other noteworthy remarks.
The sponsor, DiscoverTheIslands.Com, was interested in testing the ‘island’ theme of the Website. Another research goal concerned vacation destinations, specifically how consumers search for, organize and select a vacation destination, the types of vacations they like, and their preferences and needs during vacations. A third goal revolved around how consumers would like a travel website organized or structured and the features, tools or abilities they would like on a travel website. The final objective was to assess
consumers’ feelings and attitudes about ODAs such as their likelihood of using one, their perceived value and benefits of using such a tool, the anticipated effects of ODAs on consumer decision-making, customer loyalty and satisfaction. The specific questions asked of respondents can be seen in Appendix E.
A sample of residents was drawn from approximately 4,000 people who submitted a vacation giveaway Contest Entry Form on the travel website. Respondents were selected from contest entrants living in the metro Vancouver area of British Columbia and the metro Seattle area of Washington State. In addition, a number of respondents were solicited in two shopping malls in British Columbia by a sign that promoted the vacation giveaway. Appendix C shows an email letter that was sent to the managers of the
shopping malls requesting permission to conduct interviews there. Forty-seven interviews were conducted over a three-week period.
After the interviews, data was transcribed from the tape recorder onto large sheets of flip chart paper. There is a practice of data reduction that inevitably takes place during this process but it is believed the technique captured the key information for the purposes identified in this study. The selected data was later keyed into a spreadsheet and then transposed so that all the responses of interviewees to each question could be viewed at the same time. This data display makes it easy to sort and sift through the material to identify similar phrases, patterns, themes, relationships between variables, and distinct differences between interviewees. Key phrases, themes, etc. were not coded ahead of time but they emerged through a grounded approach. Since this is an area previously unexplored by others in the ways indicated earlier, it was important to be very open to the responses of interviewees and therefore this inductive technique was used. Thus, the grounded approach seemed very appropriate.
The spreadsheet data display also made it easy to identify categories of interviewees, differentiation between categories, and the frequencies of phrases, themes, etc. Data was
42 clustered around the themes, categories, and phrases and arrived at the syntheses seen in section 3.2.2.
The questions posed in the focus group conducted in June of 2005 are shown in Appendix D. The aim was to compare and contrast how respondents view online and offline aids. A group of 9 people were selected given their experience with both online and offline travel booking and willingness to share their experiences. One of the respondents was a travel agent two years earlier and so she gave some useful
perspectives. The session was held at a local community college on a Tuesday evening.
This time slot made it more attractive for all participants to be present and the personal invitation by the moderator was a key factor as well.
All focus groups and interviews began with a preamble that defined the entire spectrum of thought on the issues at hand strongly implying that any and every position was as acceptable and respectable as any other.