TLH251

Research Methods for Tourism,

Hospitality and Events

Assignment Guidance 2:
Quantitative Portfolio
Guidance

We have been exploring quantitative research methods over a six week

period and the second part of your assignment for this module involves
putting together a mini portfolio which will examine your understanding of
some of the quantitative methods and the use of statistical packages to
analyse these.

In your portfolio you must include;

• Questionnaire Design
• Statistical Testing: Descriptive Analysis
• Statistical Testing: Chi Square Test

This assignment will help prepare you for further university study and
especially for final projects.

Below is a checklist which will help you to prepare your portfolio. Tick off after
you have completed each item. This will also ensure you include all required
items when you complete your quantitative portfolio submission.

□ Item 1: Questionnaire Design Task

□ Item 2: Descriptive Analysis Task
□ Item 3: Chi Square Test Evidence
Item 1: Designing a Questionnaire

Quantitative methodologies offer the possibility to measure the current

tendencies and peoples’ behaviour in a geographical area, making possible
to quantify the reality, generalise the results and to replicate the study. The
majority of the studies based on quantitative techniques use questionnaires
to obtain the data. Each type of questionnaire has different needs. The
typology and the measure of the answer can be different as well and this will
affect the type of statistical procedures applied in order to analyse the
obtained results.

This practical activity is about questionnaires and includes designing one,

and then analysing an existing data set relating to measuring the visitor
satisfaction at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens.

Designing a Questionnaire

For this first element of your assessment it is essential that you design a
questionnaire for a service or attraction which operates in the events, tourism
or hospitality environment.

The aim is to assess the quality levels of service or satisfaction and motivations
amongst visitors for a visit to the chosen venue. You must ask a number of
appropriate questions which will enable you to gather a good range of data
and contribute to research.

See overleaf for a sample of a questionnaire

Measuring Visitor Satisfaction at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens

We are Master students at the University of Sunderland and are conducting this
questionnaire as part of one of our courses. We would appreciate if you could
participate in this exercise. All answers are kept confidential. Thank you!

1. Is this your first visit?

 No  Yes (please continue with question 3)

2. How often have you visited before?

 Weekly  Monthly  Once or twice per year  Rarely

3. What is your main motivation to visit? (Select one only)

 Education  Culture  Sightseeing

 Family activity  Special event  Other:_____________

4. Who are you visiting with today?

 Children  Family  Friends

 Partner  On my own  Groups

5. Please rate your experience today of the following?

Excellent Good Average Below Poor Not

Average visited/
used
today
 Winter Gardens      
Art Gallery      
Museum
     
displays
Cafe      
Shop      
Staff      
Signage      
Facilities      
Opening hours      
Special
activities
     
offered by
SMWG

6. Compared with what you expected from today’s visit has your experience with
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens been:

 Less than expected  As expected  Better than expected

7. Will you recommend a visit to the Sunderland Museum & Winter Garden?

 Yes  No

8. Please indicate your overall satisfaction of your visit today?

 Not satisfied at all  A little satisfied  Neutral

 Satisfied  Very satisfied

9. Has the experience of being at this venue influenced your mood today?

 No (please continue with question 9)

If Yes could it be described as:

 Favourable
 Very Favourable
 Unfavourable
 Very unfavourable

10. Where are you from?

 Local  Regional
 National  International

11. Gender
  Male  Female

12. Please indicate your age group in the following:

 18-25 years  26-35 years  36-45 years

 46-55 years  56-65 years  Over 65 years

13. Please indicate highest level of education?

 Primary Education  Secondary Education

 Further Education  Higher Education

Thank you very much for participating!

Item 2: Carrying Out Descriptive Statistics on a Data Set

Here we are going to use SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences),
which has been designed especially for social science studies to help analyse
data collected from questionnaires.

Part 1: Getting to know SPSS - Exploring the data in SPSS.

The first step is to understand how SPSS is used as well as the characteristics of
the dataset. For this part you need to:

o Explore the Data which has already been inserted into SPSS.

Part 2: Descriptive statistics + Results

The second step is to describe the data you are using. For this part you need
to complete the following tasks:

1) Provide a frequency analysis for the variables.

Using 6 examples from the variables within the data set provided show the
frequencies of data using the package;
2) Produce a Graph/Chart

To complement the frequency tables you need to produce a graph or chart

3) Results

The final step is to present the results obtained in the frequency analysis. You
should present them together with a short commentary of 250 words
explaining what they show.
Remember to include the following for this task for each variable you explore.

o Frequency Table

o Chart/Graph to complement the Frequency Table

o Explain what the frequency data is showing

Item 3: Chi Square Test

In the previous practical we analysed the variables individually. In this

practical we are going to relate them to each other. The process is called
“cross-tabulation” and it is one of the simplest and most frequently used
techniques to demonstrate the presence or absence of a relationship
between variables.

Part 1: Cross-tabulation
First of all you need to test and analyse the relationship between at least two
variables in the database. You need to complete the following cross-
tabulation analysis, and justify in each case whether the relationship presents
a statistically significant or non-significant result. This is something known as
the Chi Square Test.
The significance level suggesting a relationship between two variables is 0.05
and a non-significance level suggesting there to be no relationship between
the two variables is a figure above 0.05.
You should be aiming to present two test results showing significance and one
showing non insignificance.

Part 2: Presenting Descriptive Data

In the second part, you need to use the existing data set in SPSS to present
results graphically.

Remember to include the following in your portfolio:

Cross tabulation tables (Chi Square Test Result)

Produce Graphs/Charts to show the information

Explain if the test is significant or not and why there may be a

relationship or not.