sbrownkentedu Monograph, Uncategorized

Q Bibliography: Wijngaarden on ethnography in tourism research

Wijngaarden, Vanessa (2016, April 12). Q method and ethnography in tourism research: Enhancing insights, comparability and reflexivity. Current Issues in Tourism (online).

(doi: 10.1080/13683500.2016.1170771)

Abstract: Whereas other writers have recently presented Q method as an option for use in combination with traditional surveys, I employed the mind-mapping technique within a deeply qualitative approach. Showing how the Q method adds value to reflexive ethnography, I highlight the extended possibilities for its application in tourism studies. The method allows qualitative researchers’ novel entries into the perspectives and lived experiences of hosts as well as guests, providing enough rigidness to enhance their systematic handling and comparability, while being flexible enough to do justice to their complexities and nuances. The Q method can successfully be embedded in ethnographic fieldwork practices and used even with illiterate people. By adding themselves as a research participant, researchers can reflect intensely on their own subjective understandings and positions, as well as on their methodological approaches. This is of special value in tourism studies where extended reflexivity is especially urgent, because researchers are often placed in the same category as tourists by their research participants. (The first 50 people can access this article for free through http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/rx6YWRyw5Kf8bpyuZds4/full)

Vanessa Wijngaarden <vanessa.wijngaarden@gmail.com> is affiliated with the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany.

sbrownkentedu Article, Publication

Q Bibliography: Hunter on representations and identity in Taiwanese indigenous tourism

Hunter, William Cannon (2011). Rukai indigenous tourism: Representations, cultural identity and Q method. Tourism Management, 32, 335e348.

Abstract: In tourism, cultural representations of indigenous destinations are problematic. They are essential to the promotion of tourism, making destinations understandable and desirable to visitors. But they are also blamed for upsetting the cultural equilibrium of smaller destinations. However, in practice, the origin, mechanism and effects of touristic representations are not easy to identify. In this study, the problem of representations and resident cultural identity in indigenous tourism is explored. In consideration of the generative nature of representations and the contingency of subjectivities toward them, this study is context-specific, focusing on a small but significant community in southern Taiwan where indigenous tourism is a dominant industry and social issue. Q method, a technique designed for the systematic study of subjectivity in terms of opinions, beliefs, and attitudes is employed, eliciting responses from a P set (sample) of 30 participants. Subjectivities were elicited using photographs of one cultural representation, the indigenous Rukai standing stones. It was found that representations must be learned but can be ignored, and that in this community tourism is not the only socio-economic power that drives the feedback loop between representations and subjectivity. For tourism management, implications are that representations can be highly effective tools for destination promotion when informed by the diverse and highly individualized subjectivities of its residents and the production of quality local products.

William Cannon Hunter <primalamerica@yahoo.com> is in the Department of Convention Management College of Hotel & Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

sbrownkentedu Article, Publication

Q Bibliography: Mokry & Dufek on segmentation in tourism

Mokry, Stanislav, & Ondrej Dufek (2014). Q method and its use for segmentation in tourism. Procedia: Economics and Finance, 12, 445-452.

Abstract: This paper discusses the use of Q method as a useful tool for market segmentation in tourism. Q method is classified as exploratory inductive empirical research method. For the realization of this research the web application running within the server umbrela.mendelu.cz was used. The investigation was carried out using photographic materials. This online application was created at FBE Mendel University in Brno and implements Q method to online environment using visual information. The paper comprises description of the methodology of the Q method. The aim of the research was to identify groups of users of tourism products based on their preferences in relation to the preferred type of destinations. Photographs used for research depicted various types of destinations available in the Czech Republic have been selected on the basis of a content analysis of photographic database available at CzechTourism website. Total of 63 respondents from the students of Mendel University in Brno participated in this research. According to the survey results user segments based on their preferences in relation to the preferred destination were designed. Identification data of the respondents and other qualitative data about their preferences were obtained using the complementary questionnaire. Outcomes of this survey are included in long-term research project focused on the carrying capacity of tourism destinations and preferences of visitors in relation to tourist population in destination.

Ondrej Dufek <ondrej.dufek@mendelu.cz> is with the Faculty of Business and Economics, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic.