ACSPRI Conferences, ACSPRI Social Science Methodology Conference 2014

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An application of a photo-based mixed-methodology to explore domestic demand for Indigenous tourism in Australia

Trinidad Espinosa-Abascal, Martin Fluker, Min Jiang

Building: Holme Building
Room: MacCallum Room
Date: 2014-12-10 09:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Last modified: 2014-11-26

Abstract


Indigenous tourism is a growing research area receiving increasing attention from both policy makers and academic communities. However, existing studies for this type of tourism in Australia have tended to be limited to investigating domestic demand, with the majority of previous research taking a quantitative approach. This study to investigate domestic visitors’ choices of tourism activities at the Grampians National Park, Victoria, has adopted a more innovative approach. The research used a mixed-method approach in the case study involving 52 domestic visitors. The methods included an on-site survey instrument, a photo-based sorting-ranking procedure and semi-structured interviews using the photo-based sorting-ranking procedure as a photo-elicitation technique. The combination of the three methods enabled a broader understanding of the domestic visitors´ preferences, motivations for, and barriers to, engaging in Indigenous tourism. The on-site survey provided information about visitor’s demographic and psychographic characteristics. The photo-based sorting-ranking method delivered the insights both, into the preferences for Indigenous tourism activities and as a photo-elicitation technique for the semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews contributed for the understanding of motivations and barriers regarding participation in Indigenous tourism. As different methods were used, a variety of data analysis techniques were applied. Frequency distributions were used to analyse the data from the survey. Mean rankings and the multidimensional unfolding [MDU] of ordinal data method using SPSS were applied to analyse the preferences for Indigenous tourism activities. Finally, the data collected from the interviews was analysed via a thematic qualitative coding analysis using NVivo10. The coding analysis employed the Leisure Motivation Scale (LMS) framework and motivations and barriers themes identified in previous studies. The results not only confirm previous theory in regards to the socio-demographic profile of Indigenous visitors, but also expand the knowledge. The results reveal new motivations for, and barriers to, domestic visitors engaging in Indigenous tourism that have not been previously identified in the existing literature. The approach used in this study was found to be an effective tool in gaining a deeper understanding of the visitors´ motivations and barriers, and in a way that was engaging for the participants.

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