CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Methodology

Research methodology is an approach to efficiently tackle the exploration issue through some
progression, which are made in legitimate succession. It might have perceived as a Science of
Study, how exploration is done logically. It is away to examinations different viewpoint
efficiently to reach at a positive arrangement.
At the point when we discuss research philosophy, we discussion of the exploration strategy
as well as think about the rationale behind the technique. We are in the substance our
exploration study and make sense of why we are utilizing others. So that examination result is
fit for being assessed by the exploration as well as by the other.

RESEARCH PROCESS

Identify the problem

Set the objective

Develop the Research Plan

Data collection

Analysis of Data

Finding (results)

All these steps are done efficiently as individually to figure out the outcomes. The initial
phase in the exploration interaction is to distinguish the issue and set objective cautiously and
settle on the examination objective. Furthermore, advanced age says," An issue well
characterize is roughage wailed." Research might be investigation, clear are relaxed.
The second means to investigate process is fostered the most effective examination plan for
social event the required data. Planning the exploration plan call from social affair the
essential information, optional information, or both, research instruments, examining plan
and contacts techniques.

The subsequent stage in the exploration interaction is information assortment. It is generally

costly and the most inclined to mistake. Information assortment techniques are quickly
further developing thanks to present day PC and telecom. They are numerous progress of
information assortment.

The forward advance in research process is to examination the gathered information. In this
progression analyst classify the information and foster the recurrence appropriation and
utilizations different measurable apparatus to get the deductions from the information
gathered.
The last advance in the exploration cycle the analyst presents their finding in the applicable
gatherings this scientist ought to introduce significant observing that are appropriate to
significant promoting choice confronting the board.

3.2 Research Objectives

In light of the need and extent of the exploration, coming up next are the exact targets of the
review
Identify the factor that has a stronger influence on the purchase decision of the online
consumer of accommodation through OTAs.
Identify the reasons why tourists book accommodation through the Web.
Identify the factors that make the tourist book accommodation in OTAs.
Find out if the tourist who books online always searches in the same portal and identify the
most used portals.
Clustering online tourists based on the importance given to price, promotions, online reviews
and photos

3.3 Research Design

The Research has been directed in a methodical strategy beginning from the determination of
the subject to conclusive report arrangement. The general system and cycle of the strategy
continued in the review is made sense of further.
The examination configuration utilized in this report is Descriptive Research Design.
Spellbinding examination studies are those which are worried about depicting the attributes
of a specific individual or gathering.

3.4 Methodology

In methodological terms, a quantitative study was chosen through a questionnaire

elaborated according to the collected literature on the subject: Anderson and Juma
(2011) and Pan, Zhang and Law ( 2013) for the functions of OTAs; Liu, Arnett and Litecky
(2000), Blake, Valdiserri, Neuendorf and Valdiserri (2007) and Chen, Mocker, Preston
and Teubner (2010) for its size; Cox, Burgess, Sellitto and Buultjens (2009), Chen et al.
(2010), Hills and Cairncross (2011), Serra Cantallops and Salvi (2014) and Mateus (2015)
for the importance of online reviews; Kracht and Wang (2010) and Pan et al. (2013) for
promotions; Hanks (1992), Lee (2002) and Cirer Costa (2013), for the price; and Hanks
(1992) and Cirer Costa (2013), for the photos). To fulfil the objectives of this study, it
was prepared a questionnaire to gather the necessary information in order to reach
tourists of different nationalities, and was divided into five sections. The first section
aimed to understand if the tourists make their reservation online and, if so, in which portals
and the reasons for their choice. The second section inquires about the trip pattern, and the
third section aim to reach the factor that more influences the buying decision-making
process of accommodation through OTAs and understand the pre-selection procedure. The
fourth section was designed to analyse several aspects related to the influence factors – price,
promotions, reviews online and photos – and the perceived impact in the buying decision.
Finally, a section with demographic questions to understand the profile of respondents.
All the survey questions were closed-ended, including dichotomous questions, multiple-
choice questions, rank order questions and Likert-type scales in a five-point scale of
agreement (from 1-Strongly disagree to 5- Strongly agree) and of importance (from 1 –
Not important to 5 – Very important). .
The questionnaire was conducted through the Limesurvey platform and distributed with
the help of Mailchimp to a list of more than 100 personal and professional e-mails of
people from different nationalities. It was further publicised through
links on Linkedin, Facebook and national and international travel blogs.
In total, 60 completed questionnaires were collected during the one months of application.
Due to the nature of the study, only 40 of these questionnaires were considered valid, since
12 of the respondents did not make their reservations online
and 8 did not visit or intend to visit . To analyse the response bias, the responses from
the early and late respondents to the Likert scale questions were compared using non-
parametric tests, and there were not found significant differences in the majority of the
items . The internal consistency of the results of the questionnaire was evaluated by the
Cronbach's coefficient Alpha that proved to be good . Subsequently, a descriptive and
inferential statistical analysis of the results was performed. The descriptive analysis allows
to study the observed characteristics, as well as to analyse the importance of the
purchasing decision factors. To analyse the
validity of the hypothesis of the research, it was chosen an inferential analysis, in order
to search for differences in the purchasing pattern relative to price, online reviews,
promotions and photos and the different characteristics in the analysis. For this purpose,
parametric tests were applied in cases where the dependent variable had a normal
distribution as assessed by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and when the variances of the
independent sample groups were homogeneous, If these conditions are not validated, non-
parametric tests are applied.
To identify different groups of tourists that visited or intended to visit North of to the
importance given to price, promotions, reviews online and photos in the buying
making decision of accommodation through OTAs, it was made a cluster analysis, an
exploratory technique of multivariate analysis and the profile of the online consumers in each
cluster was defined according to the socio-demographic and travel characteristics.

3.5 Sampling

The comfort examining strategy is embraced to gather the information, from an

advantageously accessible pool of respondents. It is the most regularly involved examining
procedure as it's unbelievably speedy, straightforward, and conservative. The example is
gathered with the strategy for Convenience Sampling.
In this technique, we normally approach those individuals who are not difficult to approach
these predominantly are representatives who work in inns/restaurant.103 representatives were
drawn nearer to get the reactions for the review.