The Role of Niche Tourism Products in Destination - Repository ...

pragmatic approach. I consider this to be the most appropriate paradigm for studying niche tourism as it is concerned with what
works practically, offering a broader range of approaches. Pansiri reinforces how pragmatism offers avenues for future tourism
research that:
‘will be skilfully conducted, commanding an understanding of both positivist and phenomenological traditions, accompanied
by an excellent grasp of both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques’
(Pansiri, 2006, p.236)
I am already undertaking research in a number of new but associated areas. Recent published work examining the student
population in the UAE is an extension of the work presented in Paper 5. This work needs to be developed further to include cross
country comparisons of international student populations across the UK, Australia and the UAE. Research in the area of yoga
tourism has been exploratory to date and I am keen to expand the demand side of this research to include more direct and
participant observations of, and in depth interviews with, yoga tourists at key identifiable yoga tourism destinations to further
explore their motivations and experiences.
Although my work in the area of wine tourism has not been revisited recently due to my current geographical location, I am keen to
return to some of the Old World wine regions and conduct comparable research with wine tourists and DMOs in these destinations.
Leaving Australia in 2002, I had started to examine wine tourism in the context of Pine and Gilmores (1999) work in the experience
economy. I am keen to develop this area of research further examining the experiential nature of wine tourism.
Festival and event tourism has been my current research focus. The repertory grid research presented in Paper 6 is currently being
expanded to include a wider number of festival leaders and also interviews are currently being held in the UAE and Australia to