4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 4.

1 Introduction Chapter One outlined the researchs main aim and objectives, hypothesis, and the general study framework. This chapter will address these points in practical way by discussing the methodological issues starting in sections (4.2 to 4.3), which discuss the research philosophy, strategy and associated research method that been adopted and used. Section (4.4) will cover the issue of questionnaire design strategy and section (4.5) will highlight the personal interviews approach used. The following section (4.6) will cover the sampling techniques and the sample frames been adopted to carry out this study. Section (4.7) will then cover the approach to analysing data obtained from the questionnaire survey before reaching conclusion in section (4.8). 4.2 Research Philosophy The philosophical stance that has been adopted by the researcher in order to achieve its main objectives was dictated primarily by the nature of the information required by the current study on tourism marketing in Libya. This nature was clear in many contextual issues unique to the project or the organisation affected by marketing activities. Whilst these are of extreme importance to the individual organisations in their strategic marketing process endeavours, they would not be constructive in the current study research. There has been no wish to gather information on the particular experiences of people or organisations but to harness the knowledge of individuals to answer some specific questions or issues regarding tourism-marketing strategies that were context-free in its approach. However, due to the exploratory nature of the current study and because opinion rather than facts will be sought the researcher tends to go towards the interpretivist end of the positivist perspective. Thus, appropriate research methods to use in these circumstances, to collect the opinions of different experts or people who have been involved in the process of tourism planning, marketing, and implementation, independent of context were: _ In the positivist stance: Survey Research and Structured Interviewing _ In the interpretivist stance: Historical Analysis, Delphi, Intensive Interviewing, Expert Panel and Scenarios
75

Of the research methods available within the interpretivist stance Delphi and Expert panels were considered at the initial stage of the research, both of these approaches being a method of obtaining and consolidating expert opinions (Meredith et al, 1989). These two research methods were rejected primarily for reason of practicality. Typically, these approaches require a large amount of administration and due the repeated rounds of inquiry needed by the current study; it will take some time to reach a conclusion. In the meanwhile, the historical review analysis method was also rejected since in most cases the data collection is limited to secondary data only. Moreover, even if primary data based only on interviews is obtained it may be incomplete where the human memory may not correctly recall past situations though, the method can be used to study organisations performance relating to specific issues such as tourismmarketing. Therefore, the main research method that have been adopted and chosen for the current study is combined approach between the questionnaire survey and personal interviews. This method is considered to be more suited to answer the research hypothesis and to the collection of data (Oppenheim, 1992). This approach is more economical in terms of cost and time compare with the other methods suggested above. Reviewing the literature, the survey method seems to be widely used in research were relationships of variables are subject of investigation.

4.3 Research Design Strategy The research design strategy that been adopted for the current study is a combination of multi data collection techniques or methods. Empirical data from secondary survey questionnaires available from tourism planning and marketing literature have been used to validate externally the finding of this research study, and offer possible experiences, explanations and comparisons between numbers of wellknown organisations, which have already implemented tourism-marketing strategies in the recent years. The literature review that the researcher has managed to cover so far has played a major role in supporting the analysis of the primary research and provides a grounding of the research and focus needed. Also establishing sound basis for developing the research instrument for its primary data collection. After that, the identified key marketing issues within the tourism industrys literature helped in representing the structural elements that made up the practical part in this PhD thesis.