Overall Remarks

Several cases of research are described in the literature in which qualitative techniques might be considered as appropriate a) when a concept such as Linz’s image as a tourist destination, is “immature” due to a sufficient lack of theory and/or previous research qualitative approach should be taken into consideration; b) when the available theory appears to be inaccurate or inappropriate; c) when there is a need to explore and describe social phenomenon and develop theory and d) when the nature of the phenomenon is not suitable for quantitative measures (Morse, 1991). There are sufficient studies dealing with the economic and social impact of the European Capital of Culture on destinations; nevertheless destination tourist images during cultural events in general and during the European Capital of Culture in particular have received little attention, if any. Linz as a tourist destination and as a town trying to re-image itself during the European Capital of Culture suffered from insufficient information, therefore, any research on it requires a preliminary, exploratory stage where the main components and determinants could be identified and taken further into more complex research.

A short summary of the most popular qualitative techniques employed in previous studies is presented in Appendix 12.

5.5.1.1. Sample of the First Phase

For the first phase of this particular research, aiming at the richness of the collected data, a sample selection strategy proposed by Maykut and Morehouse (1994), Kumar (2005) and Lincoln and Guba (1985) and discussed in section 5.3.4.2 was adopted. The utilised sampling technique at this stage was convenience sampling since no population framework was available for the population of interest. No cut-off date was predetermined, but the collected data monitored and analysed on a weekly basis. After the first couple of weeks signs of repetition among respondents’ answers started to slowly appear and after two months the online data collection was discontinued in view of the fact that it appeared to have reached its

“saturation point” or redundancy in regard to information where no new insights about Linz could be collected. The data analysis is presented and discussed in detail in Chapter Six.

The population being studied in the first phase consisted of potential visitors of Linz. The term “potential visitor” is used in this study as a cumulative portrait of repeat and first-time domestic and international visitors of Linz. It was assumed that selecting a sample of only one of the groups, for example first-time visitors, would deprive the results by leading to missing important image components of Linz that could be captured only by individuals that had experienced the destination. If a sample of only repeat visitors of Linz was selected, the peril of painting Linz in bright colours would exist as people usually tend to put themselves in a better light because of prestige considerations (Oppenheim, 1992) or the so-called “social desirability bias”.

Therefore, by understanding the perceptions of repeat and first-time visitors, more holistic analysis of Linz’s image, expressing its unique character, would be achieved. A purposive sampling of the population of interest (potential visitors of Linz) appeared as an appropriate strategy for the purposes of this

study. Respondents’ profile and answers are analysed and discussed in Chapter Six.

5.5.1.2. Free Elicitation

Free elicitation, a well-known market research tool, was introduced to the tourism field in Reilly’s investigation (1990:22) of Montana’s image as a destination as he asked respondents “What three words best describe the state of Montana as a destination for vacation or pleasure travel?” and coded replies into similar categories and frequencies. Sussmann and Unel (1999), O'Leary and Deegan, (2005) and Kneesel et al., (2010) followed Reilly’s footsteps in their studies by slightly modifying his concept. O'Leary and Deegan’s respondents (2005), for example, were asked to list the first three words or expressions they have in mind when thinking of Ireland as a destination. The elicitation of these attributes from the sample endeavoured to get an accurate picture of destination image of Ireland held by the French tourists. Kneesel et al., (2010), on the other hand, asked questions such as

“What words or images come to mind when you think of the following places as a gaming market?” and used free elicitation to gather descriptive adjectives about the gaming destinations they were interested in. This study confirms the arguments that the major advantage of this free-form style is the fact that individuals are allowed to freely describe stimuli that are relevant to them and reflect their reality, rather than researcher’s predetermined image constructs (Reilly, 1990). However, data collected by using free elicitation depends on respondents’ capability to articulate their opinions and feelings and researcher bias could occur during the process of grouping and analyzing replies (Sussmann and Unel, 1999).

5.5.1.3. Development of Open-Ended Questions

A series of open-ended questions based upon the questions used in Echtner and Ritche’s study (1993) together with a set of demographic questions was incorporated into the explorative, qualitative phase aiming to capture the

image of Linz from visitors’ perspective (see the online questionnaire in Appendix 13). The questions were slightly modified in order to fit the purposes of this particular research. The first question focused on respondents’ spontaneous associations with the word Linz and was designed to allow respondents to freely share their overall spontaneous associations with Linz. The aim of the second question was to gain insights into respondents’ feelings and emotions in relation to Linz and attempted to capture the affective aspect of Linz’s image. The final question sought to elicit respondents’ knowledge about Linz and to determine some of its unique attractions. All questions were translated into three different languages (English, German and Bulgarian⁶), aiming to reach broader range of potential visitors of Linz with different geographical origin, background and access to commercial information about Linz.

5.5.1.4. Data Collection

The first phase was conducted by using free online questionnaire and survey tool called Survey Monkey. The data was collected from January to March 2009 and a link to the online survey consisting of mainly open-ended questions was posted on the homepage of Linz09 (the official web site of the European Capital of Culture Event in Linz) with the generous help of Linz’s authority (please see Appendix 14 for the emails requesting the authorities permission to upload the link on Linz09) and on several online platforms for travellers.

Researchers from different disciplines have already identified the Internet as a fruitful way for collecting data and increasing number of journals are publishing data that have been collected online (Schleyer and Forrest, 2000).

Reduced times and lower cost are some of the key advantages of online based survey quoted by a substantial number of researchers (Granello and Wheaton 2004; Duffy and Smith, 2005; Wilson and Laskey, 2003; Wright, 2006; Evans and Mathur, 2005). Flexible design formats such as colour, graphics, animation, etc. (Granello and Wheaton, 2004) and question diversity (dichotomous questions, multiple-choice questions, scales,

6 The researcher is fluent in German and English, and has Bulgarian as a mother tongue.

ended questions, etc.) are other features of online surveys described advantageous in the literature (Evans and Mathur, 2005).

Internet-based surveys also offer researchers the opportunity to work on other tasks, while collecting data online, thus increasing their productivity (Andrews et al., 2003, Llieva et al., 2002). Reduced social desirability bias typical for face-to-face survey methodologies along with the fact that online surveys can be completed at respondents’ convenience are other well-known benefits of Web-based surveys (Duffy and Smith, 2005). A global reach, in terms of providing access to participants that are otherwise difficult or costly to contact (Wellman 1997; Evans and Mathur, 2005), is an advantage of particular importance to this research, since it allows access to respondents from different countries and with different media exposure to information about Linz as a tourist destination.

Online surveys, on the other hand, are blamed for not being representative (Granello and Wheaton, 2004) since the penetration of the Internet has not developed to the extent that it represents the population as a whole (Wilson and Laskey, 2003).The rapid integration of the Internet in people’s life in the recent years, however, might lead soon to the evaporation of the discrepancy between offline and online populations (Fricker and Schonlau, 2002).

Nonetheless, the first stage of this research had an explorative character and was not intended to generalise the received data, which lessened the effect of such a disadvantage.

Other recognised disadvantages of online surveys are respondents’ lack of online experience/expertise and issues of privacy and security (Evans and Mathur, 2005). The conducted online survey, however, did not include any questions of sensitive and/or private nature and the design of the questionnaire was kept very basic with easy to follow instructions.

5.5.1.5. Data Analysis through Content Analysis

Neuendorf (2002:1) describes content analysis as “the systematic, objective, quantitative analysis of message characteristics”. Content analysis applies significance or meaning to collected information and helps indentify patterns in the text by coding or grouping the data into categories (Wilkinson and Birmingham, 2003). This technique is frequently utilized as an additional research tool in multi-method research using variety of methods to increase research validity, but can also be used as a research instrument on its own (Hall and Valentin, 2005). Two approaches to content analysis exist in the literature - conceptual analysis (quantitative) and relational analysis (qualitative). The former examines either the incidence or the frequency of concepts in the data, whilst the latter attempts to explore and identify relationships between themes or issues (May, 1997; Wilkinson and Birmingham, 2003; Sarantakos, 2005). Clark et al., (1998) defend the position that content analysis is an appropriate technique for researchers seeking some “hard facts” beside holistic explanations.

For the purposes of the first phase – understanding the destination image of Linz from potential visitors’ perspectives, the conceptual content analysis as a technique was selected and applied in analysing the collected information from the open-ended questions. The analysis followed Wilkinson and Birmingham’s (2003) instructions on content analysis. Firstly, a decision has to be made concerning whether a single word, a set of words or phrases will be coded. Secondly, a list of codes or categories to be used in subsequent coding should be made. Thirdly, a decision must be made on the allowed flexibility where words that do not exactly match the codes will be ignored or included. Finally, it needs to be decided whether to code for concepts of their incidence or for their frequency of occurrence. The former helps the development of a holistic picture since it caters for maximum variations in the data.

It was decided to code single words only and to distinguish between adjectives describing Linz since they represent Linz’s affective image domain and nouns which are representative of Linz’s cognitive image domain.

Afterwards, similar words were grouped into categories with indicative labels.

It was also decided to allow flexibility and include words into the categories if they are synonymous or describing the same object. For example, one of the main attractions in Linz, the Niebelungenbridge, was called in three different ways: the Bridge, the bridge above the river and Niebelungenbridge.

5.5.1.6. Research Limitations of the First Phase

The low response rate (74 respondents) of this qualitative research phase could have been improved by approaching the Austrian Tourist Office and seeking permission to upload the link to the questionnaire on www.austria.info which promotes Austria as a tourist destination worldwide.

This strategy could have exposed the questionnaire to potential Austrian visitors who might have had interest in visiting Linz or had already experienced it and were willing to share their opinions on it.

Although the sample of the exploratory stage was small, the open-ended questions, even online and with limited space for answering, offered the researcher more than a glimpse of the unadulterated Linz through the eyes of its potential tourists. Through these responses, the author was able to elicit some of Linz’s unique characteristics and understand aspects of its individuality (Iordanova-Krasteva et al., 2010). These characteristics were used to inform the design of the study’s questionnaire.