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anonymity granted by an e-mail questionnaire is considered very important for a country with a small population like the Maldives, where most people are known by each other, especially when they work in the same industry or same kind of business. Response rate is a decisive factor in judging the quality of a survey’s outcomes (Stoop, 2005). In e-mail surveys, response rate is influenced by survey length, pre-notification, survey follow-ups and issue salience (Sheehan, 2001). Sheehan noted that research has shown conflicting results with regard to the influence of survey length on response rate. Sheehan also caution that since pre-notification messages in e-mail surveys may be regarded as ‘unsolicited’ mail, only short messages that provide the option to participate in the survey may be acceptable to respondents. The e-mails sent to participants of both the surveys contained Participant Information Sheets (Appendix 3) explaining the purpose and benefits of the study and assuring participants that no identifying information would be included in the study. This e-mail also contained the option to participate in the survey. Two weeks from the date of sending the surveys, a follow-up e-mail was sent to potential participants of both surveys. Getting responses to the operators’ survey proved difficult. Saunders et al. (2000) suggest that any non-responses require additional respondents to be sought in order to achieve the necessary sample size. Initially the operators’ survey was e-mailed to managers of the resorts. Due to the limited initial response, the survey had to be e-mailed again, with department managers being included in the list of respondents the second time. By the end of the three week duration that the survey was run, a total of 12 completed surveys were received from operators which gave a 14% response rate. From the experts’ opinion survey, six completed surveys were received providing a response rate of 60%. The data entry and analysis used ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences’ (SPSS Version 16). In accordance with the ethical guidelines issued by Auckland University of Technology Ethics Committee (AUTEC), privacy and confidentiality were respected throughout the research process (see appendix 4 for Ethics Approval form). 58
3.7 Data validity and reliability In any research, whether the methodology is quantitative or qualitative, the methods being used to gather data have to be reliable and valid (Jennings, 2001). Reliability means whether or not a specific method, when applied repeatedly to a particular entity, would produce the same result every time (Finn et al., 2000). Validity refers to the representativeness of the measurements to the concepts being researched (Lewin, 2005). Finn et al. (2000) go further and distinguish between external validity and internal validity. External validity asks whether the research results can be generalized, while internal validity refers to the extent to which the observations reflect the research hypothesis (Denzin and Lincoln, 1998). Jennings (2001) explained that validity and reliability are not the same. Research findings can be reliable but not valid: i.e. the instrument used can generate the same results consistently but this does not mean that the findings are the intended results of the research (Lewin, 2005). However, perfect validity would signify perfect reliability (Jennings, 2001). Finn et al. (2000) refers to Decrop (1999) to propose four criteria for assessing both quantitative and qualitative research: credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. Credibility questions the truthfulness of the research findings, transferability is concerned with the application of the results to other populations, dependability questions the consistency of the findings, and conformability assesses the unbiased nature of the findings. Saunders et al. (2000) cautioned that a high non-response rate may cause response bias. Response rate is different from response bias. Dey (1997) claimed that: It may be that a survey that yields a very low response rate, say 10%, does a fairly good job of representing the population from which the mail-out sample was originally drawn. This would be the case if the 10% who responded to this hypothetical survey were quite similar to the 90% who failed to respond. (p. 217) A factor that strongly influences response rate was found to be the salience of an issue to the sample population (Martin, 1994). According to Bean and Roszkowski, (1995), salience has greater influence on the response rate than the length of the survey. The low response rate received for the operator survey could have been caused due to operators’ lack of interest in the survey topic. 59
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The Role of Local Food in Maldives
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CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
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Figure 5.26 Buffet dinner .........
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Attestation of authorship “I here
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Abstract In the fiercely competitiv
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1.1 Background to the study CHAPTER
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attractiveness and promoting sustai
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Figure 1. 1 Map of the Republic of
Page 17 and 18: CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW The
Page 19 and 20: and nationalities are broadened (Sh
Page 21 and 22: focus on creating “meaningful tou
Page 23 and 24: quality of their services and produ
Page 25 and 26: waiting list for future Guggenheim
Page 27 and 28: Natural and cultural attractions ar
Page 29 and 30: local culture, built heritage, and
Page 31 and 32: Although the above inherent charact
Page 33 and 34: ituals and leisure (Tannahill, 2002
Page 35 and 36: and participation in the experience
Page 37 and 38: Cultural exploration is an integral
Page 39 and 40: 2002). As Jones and Jenkins (2002)
Page 41 and 42: Figure 2. 2 Isle of Arran food trai
Page 43 and 44: globalisation strong local food ide
Page 45 and 46: vegetarian pizza outlets are run by
Page 47 and 48: tradition are made sustainable in t
Page 49 and 50: tourism” (p. 115). As their examp
Page 51 and 52: Slow Food Award in 2000 which recog
Page 53 and 54: eing researched. Although the small
Page 55 and 56: On the other hand, the focus of the
Page 57 and 58: A disadvantage of case sstudies is
Page 59 and 60: 1. data triangulation: uses a range
Page 61 and 62: A number of international organisat
Page 63 and 64: Content analysis has been a valuabl
Page 65 and 66: 3.6.2 Surveys “A survey is a good
Page 67: Table 3. 2 Advantages vantages and
Page 71 and 72: 3.8 Survey characteristics Out of t
Page 73 and 74: were doing doctoral research that w
Page 75 and 76: was a British protectorate from 188
Page 77 and 78: Figure 4. 2 Population growth rate
Page 79 and 80: 4.3 Economy The Republic of Maldive
Page 81 and 82: 4.4 Agriculture Agriculture plays o
Page 83 and 84: population was badly affected by th
Page 85 and 86: enefits of tourism among all the at
Page 87 and 88: As tourism became established in th
Page 89 and 90: prospect repeatedly proclaimed by e
Page 91 and 92: Table 4. 1 Maldives tourist arrival
Page 93 and 94: Figure 4. 8 Market share of top ten
Page 95 and 96: provided a slow burning barbecue to
Page 97 and 98: Figure 4. 13 Rukuraa and raabadhi S
Page 99 and 100: CHAPTER FIVE: THE CURRENT ROLE OF F
Page 101 and 102: possible” (Sarantakos, 1998, p. 2
Page 103 and 104: Table 5. 3 Frequency of images in p
Page 105 and 106: (Figure 5.3). As Figure 5.4 illustr
Page 107 and 108: Figure 5. 6 Dining experience Sourc
Page 109 and 110: Figure 5. 9 Website with no informa
Page 111 and 112: The description indicates that food
Page 113 and 114: Figure 5. 11 Screw pine Source: Mal
Page 115 and 116: Figure 5. 14 Local ‘tea’ ceremo
Page 117 and 118: Hence, the kind of analysis needed
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Figure 5. 18 Barbecue menus Source:
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Figure 5. 19 Seafood display Source
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Figure 5. 22 Unloading fish to the
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chefs in our booming tourist indust
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Figure 5. 25 Activities featured as
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Table 5. 5 Importance of using loca
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CHAPTER SIX: DEVELOPING LINKS BETWE
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Table 6. 3 Number of respondents th
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ight quality of products from these
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experts, “It is of great potentia
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have failed to utilise”. One of t
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Figure 6. 1 Number of local and for
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local cuisine. This warning echoes
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• Since tourism operators and exp
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to authentic local foods. In additi
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products. This would pave the way f
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• Promote Maldives as an environm
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Figure 6. 4 Garudhiya bai meal Sour
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Figure 6. 7 Canned curries, garudhi
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Figure 6. 11 Screw pine fruit and n
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Figure 6. 14 Short eats Source: Mal
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Figure 6. 16 Smooth loofah, Thoraa
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Figure 6. 19 Malaafaiy Source: Leis
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Figure 6. 21 Drinks made with local
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CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSIONS In an in
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list ‘local’ food items were of
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apparent from tourism marketing mat
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operator” (Omidi, 2009b). Those r
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Bibliography ADB. (2005). Country s
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Buhalis, D. (2001). The tourism phe
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Everett, S., & Aitchison, C. (2008)
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Heath, E., & Wall, G. (1992). Marke
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Lutfy, M. I. (1995). Dhivehiraajjeg
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MTCA. (2007b). Tourism Yearbook. Ma
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Ravenscroft, N., & Westering, J. V.
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Sheehan, K. (2001). E-mail survey r
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Veal, A. J. (1997). Research method
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Appendix 1 - Operators’ Questionn
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185
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Appendix 3 - Participant Informatio
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Appendix 4 - Ethics Approval 197
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Committee. Until full approval has
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