Master in Tourism Management and Planning

Quantitative Methods in Tourism Research

II. Data collection

methods
II. Data collection methods

Content

1. Classification of survey methods

2. Advantages and disadvantages

3. Influence of mode of delivery on survey errors

1. Classification of survey methods

Survey design/process
Define Research Objectives
Hypothesis

Choose mode of Choose sampling

data collection frame

Construct and pretest Design and

questionnaire select sample

Recruit and
measure sample

Code and edit data

Make Postsurvey adjustments

Perform Analysis

1. Classification of survey methods

Data collection methods differ on the basis of their design characteristics

and their adequacy for collecting data.

a) degree of interviewer involvement

b) level of interaction with respondent
c) degree of privacy for the respondent
d) channels of communication used
e) degree of technology used
1. Classification of survey methods

Methods of data collection

With interviewer Self-administration

Paper • Personal (F2F) • “paper self-administered”
• telephone • mail
Electronic • computer assisted personal • E-mail
interview (CAPI) • Web surveys
• computer assisted telephone • Computer Assisted Self-
interview (CATI) Interview (CASI)
• ACASI
• disc by mail (old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cuOyAR-Y9I
2. Advantages and disadvantages

PERSONAL INTERVIEWING

ADVANTAGES: DISADVANTAGES:

Generally: highest cooperation and lowest Most costly mode of administration

refusal rates
Allows for longer, more complex interviews Longer data collection period
High response quality Interviewer concerns
Takes advantage of interviewer presence
Multi-method data collection

Interviewers can:
• Be effective recruiters of sample persons
• Reduction of non-response error (clarifications,...).
• Affect on the answers provided (sensitive questions)
• Interviewer’s personal characteristics (gender, race,...)
2. Advantages and disadvantages

TELEPHONE INTERVIEWING

ADVANTAGES: DISADVANTAGES:
Less expensive than personal interviews Biased against households without
telephones, unlisted numbers
Samples of general population Non-response

Shorter data collection period than Questionnaire constraints

personal interviews
Interviewer administration (vs. mail) Difficult to administer questionnaires
on sensitive or complex topics
Better control and supervision of
interviewers (vs. personal)
Better response rate than mail for list
samples
2. Advantages and disadvantages

MAIL SURVEYS

ADVANTAGES: DISADVANTAGES:

Generally lowest cost Most difficult to obtain cooperation

Can be administered by smaller team of No interviewer involved in collection of
people (no field staff) data
Access to otherwise difficult to locate, Need good sample
busy populations
Respondents can look up information or More likely to need an incentive for
consult with others respondents
Slower data collection period than
telephone
2. Advantages and disadvantages
WEB SURVEYS
ADVANTAGES:
Lower cost (no paper, postage, mailing,
data entry costs)
Can reach international populations
Time required for implementation
reduced
Complex skip patterns can be
programmed
Sample size can be greater
DISADVANTAGES
% of homes own a computer; % have
home e-mail. http://www.aimc.es/
Representative samples difficult -
cannot generate random samples of
general population
Differences in capabilities of people's
computers and software for accessing
Web surveys
Different ISPs/line speeds limits extent
of graphics that can be used
2. Advantages and disadvantages

Source: Internet World Stats – http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

2. Advantages and disadvantages

Decision criteria for survey type

There is no universal-ideal data collection method. The choice of a particular

approach will depend on our objectives and resources available.

Characteristics of the Population

+
Characteristics of The Sample
+
Types of Questions
+
Question Topic
+
Response Rate
+
€€ Cost €€
+
Time
3. Influence on survey error

Quality evaluation of the collection method

• Data completeness
• Social desirability bias
• Response effects
• Outliers and agreement
• Context effects
3. Influence on survey error

Data completeness

• Quantity of information provided by the respondent among the total

information that the questionnaire pretends to obtain.
• Respondents don’t understand the question
• The respondent don’t follow the instructions in the
questionnaire
• Respondents are not willing to give an answer

Ø Interviewer > Self-completed

Ø Less evident difference between F2F and phone.

3. Influence on survey error

Social desirability bias

§ Socially negative behaviours (e.g. illegalities) under-represent

§ Positive behaviours (e.g. voting) over-represented

Comparison F2F vs Self-Administered questionnaire

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Ø Interviewer > Self-completed

3. Influence on survey error

Response effects

§ Words used

§ Question order effects

§ Same page? Ø Less evident in web surveys
§ Visually linked or separated?

§ Order of responses in closed questions

§ Primacy (1st and 2nd answers) Ø ++ Visually

§ Recency (last answers) Ø ++ Telephone

3. Influence on survey error

Extremeness and acquiescence

§ Extremeness: tendency to choose endpoints of a response scale.

§ Acquiescence: tendency to answer positively regardless the content of the

question.

Ø Telephone > F2F

Ø People with more limited skills

Ø Those who do not like to think

Ø When a question is difficult to answer

Ø After they have become fatigued

Ø When respondents have been encouraged to guess

3. Influence on survey error

Context effects

§ Visual aids
§ Complement F2F with visual cards
§ Web survey
3. Influence on survey error

MIXED-METHODS: Using multiple modes of data collection.

a) Reduce costs.
b) To maximize response rates.
c) To save money in a longitudinal study.

The aim is to optimize one method and its drawbacks can be covered by another one.
3. Influence on survey error

Grooves (2004); pg. 179, exercise 5 : Identify which mode (telephone, face-to-face, or mail) would be
the most desirable for household surveys, if each criterion below were of highest priority.

a) The survey is completed quickly.

b) The survey costs are low for a given sample size.
c) The response rate is high.
d) Population speaking a language different from the majority are well measured.

Variable Mail Phone Face-to-Face

Cost Cheapest Moderate Costly
Speed Moderate Fast Slow
Response rate Low to moderate Moderate High
Sampling need Address Phone num Address
Burden on respondent High Moderate Low
Control participation of others Unknown High Variable
Length of Questionnaire Short Moderate Long
Sensitive questions Best Moderate Poor
Lengthy answer choices Poor Moderate Best
Open-ended responses Poor Moderate Best
Complexity of Questionnaire Poor Good Best
Possibility of interviewer bias None Moderate High
3. Influence on survey error

Grooves (2004); pg. 179, exercise 2 : Briefly describe two advantages and two disadvantages of using
interviewers for survey data collection.

Interviewers can:
• Be effective recruiters of sample persons,
• Reduction of Non-response error (clarifications,...).

• Affect on the answers provided (sensitive questions).

• Interviewer’s personal characteristics (gender, race,...).