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

(Selby, 2004). Honey’s (1979) method of content analysis was used in preference to a more highly statistical approach allowing the
researcher to make use of individual meanings expressed through the interviewee ratings on the grid. The overall summary
construct was creative/uncreative and all the other constructs were analysed in terms of how close or removed they were from this.
Thus High, Intermediate and Low (H-I-L) values were allocated to each construct and they allow the researcher to establish exactly
how important individuals rated the constructs. The application of repertory grids is particularly suited to grounds underrepresented
in other more traditional forms of data collection research (Canning and Holmes, 2006) and yielded interesting insights into the
creativity of festival leaders in Edinburgh.
3.5 Conclusion
My research has been heavily influenced by a pragmatist approach, utilising mixed methods, as a highly practical way of
investigating tourism research and producing results that are relevant and make a contribution to both tourism business theory and
practices (Pansiri, 2005; 2006). Earlier on in my research career there was a heavy focus on more positivistic methodologies with
extensive use of surveys as the key research instrument. As I have grown and developed as a researcher I have adopted a mixed
methods approach using more qualitative research methodologies in line with the growing indication of increasing methodological
diversity within tourism research (Morgan and Bischoff, 2003). Papers 3 and 9 are all essentially mixed methods based, using a
combination of research methods, influenced by previous research processes (Papers 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7). Ryan asked the tourism
researcher to be ’thorough, exhaustive, methodological, imaginative, emphatic, informed, decisive and communicative’ (Ryan,
1995, p.282). The outcomes of tourism research can never be wholly positivist or prescriptive, but must inform the practice of
tourism and guide tourism managers and organisations to achieve their core objectives in a practical and applicable manner. The
role and importance of the consumer should become the focal point for future tourism research as highlighted in this critical