Investigation and Evaluation of the Satisfaction of Chinese Tourists Aged 45-59 Years with Sustainable Experience in Cairns

Investigation and evaluation of the satisfaction of Chinese tourists aged 45-59 years with sustainable experience in Cairns

1.  Problem statement and objectives

1. Problem statement

The purpose of this study is to investigate and evaluate the satisfaction of Chinese tourists aged 45-59 years with sustainable experience in Cairns during the Australian summer period, December to February 2016-2017.

1. Sub Problems

Sub problem 1

What are the numbers of Chinese tourists aged 45-59 years visiting Cairns during the December to February Australian summer period of 2016-2017?

Sub problem 2

What are the numbers of satisfied Chinese tourists aged 45-59 years visiting Cairns during the December to February Australian summer period of 2016-2017?

1. Research design

1. Core function

The proposed research, according to Chen (2015), is a pure research in terms of its core function, which is conducted by academic or postgraduate students to evaluate Chinese tourist satisfaction of sustainable tourism in Cairns thereby to advance the conceptual or methodological development of sustainable tourism.

1. Information requirement

The proposed research is going to be a descriptive design according to the information required, which is Chinese tourist satisfaction of sustainable tourism in cairns. As regards of literature, descriptive designs are generally used to scientifically and precisely describe the facts of a particular population (Pizam, cited in Tiyce et al. 2014) or to calculate the proportion of people in an identified population who act in a certain way (Churchill, cited in Tiyce et al. 2014). Compared with experimental designs (to examine previously unexplored areas) and exploratory designs (to explain how or why variables are related), descriptive design is more eligible for the proposed research since it aims to evaluate the proportion of satisfied Chinese tourists in the total Chinese tourists visiting Cairns.

1. Methodology

Quantitative method is going to be used for this proposed research. This quantitative research is based on the statistics analysis of Chinese tourist satisfaction, and it will obtain results that can be used to evaluate quantitative phenomenon of this particular group’s interest towards the tourist destination - Cairns.

Yanow & Schwartz-Shea (2013) use “positivism” to refer to the quantitative method, which clearly reveal its reliability. More specifically, Encyclopedia of research design (2010) interprets that quantitative data are gathered on the basis of meticulous statistics of variables by using organized and certified data collection techniques and processes.

Admittedly, the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods may be an ideal way for most researches (Davies 2003), however, qualitative research is more suitable to obtain in-depth information from a small group of people (Tiyce et al. 2014), which is not applicable for this big tourist group. Therefore, quantitative method is more appropriate way for this proposed research.

1. Data collection methods

The selected method for the proposed research is survey. Surveys are undeniably the most frequently used method of collecting quantitative statistics for tourism research (Tiyce et al. 2014), particularly for the measurement of customer satisfaction of service provided (Knutson et al. 2001). In addition to the survey mode, structured interview, which concerns a personal and oral interaction, usually guarantees a higher response rate comparing with surveys (Tiyce et al. 2014). Furthermore, rather than just providing a brief answer like survey does, a more abundant and more clarified understanding of the satisfaction of the tourists are usually elicited (Lu 2015). While the method has many advantages, a structured interview can be very costly and time-consuming to conduct (Donley 2012). Because of the big population the proposed research concerns, it is not practical to take about 1 hour or longer to complete the interview for participants and interviewers.

Surveys can be conducted in many various ways. The main selected type of this proposed research is customer (on-site) survey. It is suitable for the proposed research since it is distributed directly when those Chinese tourists aged 45-59 years visiting one of the sites in Cairns. Through this way, anonymity degree and efficiency can be guaranteed, which will obtain a higher response rate (Tiyce et al. 2014). Meanwhile, e-survey is going to be used as well, in case the tourists have some emergencies when taking the survey on site. Tourists can be given an URL and offered to take an online survey at their leisure alternatively (Pizam, Shapoval & Ellis 2016), which are easier to send and collect from a sizable population, faster and flexible (Donley 2012). Both on-site survey and e-survey can be very cost-effective to conduct and ideal for gathering demographic and behavioral statistics from wide geographic areas (Tiyce et al. 2014). Hence, using both on-site survey and e-survey will be suitable for the research of satisfaction of Chinese tourist aged 45-59 years in Cairns.

1. Qualtrics survey

1. Open ended questions

Open questions enable to offer tourists a better autonomy to answer the question since they have the chance to answer in the way that matches their understanding and to use their own terms (May 2010). Moreover, further information or new ideas on their sustainable experience in Cairns might be highlighted to deliver greater depth of clarification (Tiyce et al. 2014). Hence, this type of question is useful to collect suggestions or feelings of tourists.

1. Closed-ended questions

With closed-ended questions, prior judgments about what applicable categories will be are made by researchers (Lewis-Beck 2003). Lists of alternative answers such as attractions tourists visited are given for tourists to select, which makes the data analysis much quicker and more inexpensive than open-ended questions (May 2010). They also provide comparability among each answer, which makes it easier and time-saving for tourists.