Tourism Industry Research

Abstract

There is now, in the late 1980s, a vast amount of research being conducted by the tourism industry. The exact meaning of the term research, as employed by tourism executives, warrants further consideration, since at times the concept is not equivalent to an academic understanding of the term. Broadly, the work undertaken by sections of the tourism industry can be divided into economic and visitor surveys, feasibility and project assessment studies and problem oriented analyses. Where these areas involve the collection and interpretation of data, such as in the survey work, the term research is synonymous with any social scientist’s use of the phrase. On the other hand where the tourist industry research involves a simple collection of existing statistics and a personal summary of available public information, it scarcely qualifies as a research piece despite the frequent use of this title. This questioning of the label of research is more than a pedantic quibble. If social scientists and tourism researchers are to offer the tourist industry their research skills, then it must be understood that specialist skills are involved; skills which include the organisation of the problem and how to tackle it, the collection of relevant original data and its appropriate and cautious interpretation. The danger in the basic use of the term research is that it can, without the data gathering and interpreting exercise, simply amount to a summary of one’s opinions, a process which gives the social scientist a role, but not a specialist role, in any tourism debate.