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566 survey, guest
most often the residents of a country or tourists
visiting an attraction or destination, but may
include all passengers on an airline or all guests at a
hotel. Next, a sampling frame ± that is, a list of all
units in the population, such as all households in a
country ± or rules for identifying all such units,
such as a computer programme that randomly
generates household telephone numbers, must be
specified.
The survey planner must determine how many
respondents to interview �the sample size) and
where to interview �the venue). For statistical
reasons, larger samples produce more reliable
results than smaller ones. However, a sample size
of 1,500 to 2,000 is adequate for many tourism
research purposes. Popular venues for surveys
include national frontiers, transportation modes,
places of accommodation and households.
The rules for selecting the respondents to be
included in the sample must be specified. These
rules must allow every one in the target population
to have a known, non-zero chance of being selected
for the sample. If either the interviewer determines
who is interviewed, or respondents choose whether
to be included or not, the validity of the survey is
compromised. The questionnaire or interview form
must be carefully designed to avoid ambiguity and
administered to the sample by trained interviewers.
Better surveys pretest the sample selection procedures,
the interview process and the questionnaires
in advance to remove obstacles to the smooth
conduct of a valid final survey.
Further reading
WTO �1994) Conducting and Processing a Visitor Survey,
Instructional Materials, Madrid: World Tourism
Organization. �Outlines procedures for planning,
organising, conducting, processing and
analysing a survey of visitors to a destination
country or other area.)
ÐÐ �1995) Collection and Compilation of Tourism
Statistics, Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
�Discusses objectives and principles of conducting
national tourism surveys of inbound or
outbound tourists and tourism.)
DOUGLAS C. FRECHTLING, USA
survey, guest
One method of collecting data on tourist characteristics
is represented by a guest survey. This
kind of marketing research addresses the
tourist at the destination. Therefore, it emphasises
other aspects of behaviour than a travel
survey based on household samples.
Guest surveys are administered to gather indepth
knowledge about tourists' needs, spatial
mobility, consumption of natural, transport, and
cultural facilities as well as their satisfaction
levels. Scanning the tourists with regard to their
demographic �see demography), socioeconomic
and psychographic characteristics provides information
for tourism marketing and effective
advertising. Guest surveys are conducted in
different ways. Front-end surveys are used for
collecting a limited set of trip characteristics that
are not subject to change by the trip itself. Possible
variables are length of stay, type and means of
accommodation, principal destination, travel
party, geographic origin, travel preparation and
organisation.
Surveys during the stay focus on variables such
as tourist activities, interests, attitudes, benefits
sought and satisfaction, as well as spending
patterns. During-visit surveys may be administered
unsupervised �with paper and pencil or interactively
by computer interface) or supervised by
personal interviewers �see interview). Whereas
the unattended version leads to low field costs in
combination with low response rates and a biased
representativeness, personal interviews have substantially
higher costs but offer the advantage of
receiving more reliable answers and shortening the
field process. For particular purposes such as
diagnosing spending patterns, time budget allocation
or leisure participation, it is appropriate to
apply diary surveys that keep records of the
tourist's daily activities. Before leaving the country,
tourists may be invited to deliver different information
about their trip. This type of research is called
exit surveys, and is preferably conducted at
departure lounges of airports or harbours.
See also: causal model; expectation; guests;
image; impacts; marketing research; quality