The Role of Local Food in Maldives Tourism - Scholarly Commons ...

CHAPTER THREE:
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
This chapter contains a discussion of the methodological approach and research design
used to examine the aims and objectives set out in Chapter 1. The discussion clarifies
the methods, instruments, and specific processes of data collection and analysis as well
as the ethical issues involved.
Tourism and food involve several actors and so the relationship is a complex one.
Therefore, the study of food and tourism requires the use of more than one method. A
variety of information needs to be gathered from different data sources, and a number of
different research methods which complement and compensate for the weaknesses and
strengths of one another are necessary in order to provide a reliable, valid and complete
understanding of the situation and issues. Thus, a case-study method based on a
grounded theory approach using multiple methods has been employed.
3.1 Methodological approach
There are two primary approaches to data gathering in any research: the qualitative and
the quantitative (Jennings, 2001). Quantitative research gathers data by “rigorous
scientific” methods (Finn, Eliott-White & Walton, 2000, p. 8), using statistical analysis
and numerical evidence to arrive at conclusions and usually engaging large numbers to
prove reliability (Veal, 1997). Research that uses quantitative methodologies has the
advantage of acquiring responses from a large number of people to a limited number of
questions, thus enabling data to be compared and statistically aggregated, and the
findings to be generalized (Patton, 2002). Quantitative research processes are guided by
a deductive approach. As such, the research often commences with a hypothesis related
to the phenomenon being researched which is tested with data gathered by statistical
methods and empirical evidence (Neuman, 2003). Examples of quantitative research
methods include surveys, experiments, statistics, structured observation and content
analysis (Silverman, 2006, with reference to Bryman, 1988).
In contrast, qualitative research is defined by Strauss and Corbin (1998) as “any type of
research that produces findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other means of
quantification” (p. 10). Qualitative methods can produce rich and thorough information
from a small group of people due to the increased depth of understanding of the cases
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