Benckendorff, Pierre, Moscardo, Gianna, and Murphy, Laurie (2007) Contrasting online and onsite sampling methods: results of visitor responses to a destination survey. In: 38th Annual Conference of the Travel and Tourism Research Association. pp. 13-22. From: Travel and Tourism Research Association 38th Annual Conference Proceedings "Beating the Odds with Tourism Research", 17-20 Jun 2007, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

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Abstract

The spectacular growth and adoption of the Internet has created a myriad of opportunities in the field of marketing. These opportunities include not only promotion and customer relationship management but also market research. Tourism academics have been slow in following tourism operators and consultants in using the Internet as a research tool. This reluctance is partly due to concerns about the reliability and validity of Internet samples. This paper contrasts an onsite sampling method with a self-selected online sample. Both samples responded to the same questions about a popular tourist destination in Australia. The findings indicate significant differences between the onsite and online samples. The online sample had significantly more female respondents. There were also major differences in travel motives, perceptions of destination attributes and information sources used. The online survey appeared to be affected quite substantially by coverage error and non-response bias. This suggests that researchers and tourism operators should be cautious about the temptation to use self-selected online surveys instead of onsite surveys, particularly for destination or location specific studies.

Item ID:	3181
Item Type:	Conference Item (Research - E1)
ISBN:	978-0-9768068-2-0
Keywords:	online sampling; tourism methods; surveying
Date Deposited:	10 Dec 2009 23:55
FoR Codes:	15 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 1506 Tourism > 150699 Tourism not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes:	90 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 9003 Tourism > 900399 Tourism not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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