Showcasing GOA as a Multifaceted Destination Meaning - Research Proposal Example

Introduction GOA is a state which is found in western India coast of Arabian Sea. Although it is the smallest of all of the India’s states economic wise it is the strongest and it has the highest GDP per capita which is attributed to mining and tourism activities. With the dwindling mining industry, tourism is taking over as the main economic activities. The state of GOA has a number of tourism attractions including the beaches, the natural biodiversity and the cultural and archeological heritage. With regards to destination marketing the state only was involved when the government tourism department came to existence in 1960s. The year 2014 saw GOA Tourism Department launching new tourism strategy which was aimed at rebranding and repositioning the state, away from the image that was developed in the 1960s where the state was portrayed as being a hippy beach destination involved in consumption of drugs. During those earlier days the state was associated with hippies from the west, backpackers and charter flights whose occupants were mainly budget travelers. The repositioning campaign may be seen as being part of a broad tourism development strategy that is being used by GOA state government including construction of new airports and cruise terminal. The liberalization of Indian economy that commenced in early 1990s this being spear headed by Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, saw a considerable growth in India’s middle class with domestic tourism destination being the beneficiaries of the new wealth. The state of GOA has been relatively successful in the attraction of this middle class travel segment, who have high regard of GOA being a cool destination bearing in mind India is seen to be highly traditional and conservative in culture. A typical example is where in GOA it is common to see women wearing sleeveless tops and short pants something that unusual in the rest of India. This makes GOA to earn the reputation of being comfortable, safe and relaxed. The vision of the Ministry of Tourism which is in charge of overseeing the GOA Tourism Department has the desire of diversifying the image of the state as a tourist destination. This would see moving away from it being a hippy beach holiday destination instead having rich Portuguese/Indian culture and heritage and nature hinterland taking centre stage. With close collaboration with Chlophyll which is a brand management company, the new Kenna Campaign has been brought up by the GOA Tourism Department. Kenna is the official language of the state and it a word that means sometime. The overall aim is show casing GOA as a multi-faceted destination meaning that the state can be many things for those making it their destination. With the relatively high cost that comes with repositioning campaign and being fully aware that for the image of GOA to change in the market, it will take some time, the GOA Tourism Board intention consistently putting into use the Kenna positioning in all matters marketing communication. The board has full recognition of the need of demonstrating to tourism businesses how effective the campaign will turn up over time as per the perceptions of consumers in the key markets. It is due to this that the management had to come up with an outline of measuring perceptions of GOA in Australia market in 2016 , two years letter after the launching of the campaign. Research design Most empirical studies usually will involve a complex study methodology. According to Zenker (2011) in his literature review complex methods (mixed methods) are necessary in research more so where brands are concerned. Mixed method type of research design is not rare in social sciences. There is agreement in literature focusing on research methodology in social sciences with regard to the fact that in designing a study the goals and research questions very important (Malhotra, 2002). Any study will be classified as being a mixed method study for the case where both qualitative and quantitative methods are included in the process of acquiring data and analysis be it in parallel or sequential phases. There are a number of advantages that comes with combined use of different research methods including helping in giving a better response to research questions and coming up with better conclusions. Better and stronger conclusions can be made for the case where the chosen method for research make each other complete and are reinforcement to each other all the potential weaknesses and limitations inherent in individual methods being overcome (Teddlie and Tashakkori, 2006). Putting into consideration the prospects as well as the directions of the subject matter using a mixed method type of research design in this market research was seen to be justifiable and very instrumental. The mixed method design gave a better understanding to research matter under investigation. When it comes to qualitative research the why and not the how question to the topic is answered of the topic by analyzing the unstructured information that include things like notes, emails, transcripts, feedback forms photos and videos. In qualitative research unlike quantitative research there is not dwelling on statistics or numbers. Usually in this type of research one can be able to gain insight about the people’s attitude, value system, behaviours, motivations, concerns, aspirations, culture or lifestyles. This type of research may be used in policy formation, informing business decisions, communication and research. The many formal approaches used in qualitative research are focus group, in-depth interviews, semiotics and content analysis and additionally it may involve analysis of some unstructured materials which may feedback forms from the customer, reports or media clips. In this research it is possible to have understanding how people feel and what makes them to feel as they do. There is collection of in-depth information with questions such as why do you say that being presented to the respondent. In this case we have much smaller samples which is unlike the case of quantitative projects that involve much larger samples. Research instruments This research will involve questionnaires being administered to the respondents as a way of collecting data including their gender, the mode of study of the student (part time or full time) and type of student (international or local student). These three questions are nominal. The bulk of the questionnaire will involve investigations on the respondents’ perception on various issues concerning the unit under investigation. This consist of a total of 20 items to which there is to be a response ranging from 0 (no opinion) 1 (not important) and 7 very important. For example the first item will asking the respondents about if they fill unit materials can enable them o understand why learning in the unit in their course. Sampling procedure The sampling approach in a research plays an important role, bearing in mind its ability to have substantial influence on the results that will come out and how representative the results are of the true situation. The sampling approach present the advantage of being time saving, cost efficient and when used the respondents are found to cooperate more (Malhotra 2010, p. 377). Other advantages associated with this methodology is that there is more extensive and elaborate information can be collected, and this can facilitate more accurate data analysis as well as the efficient use of the researcher’s time, more and labour. Through survey sampling it is possible it may be possible for a sample to be considered an equivalent of a population (Conner & Morrel, 1985; Moser & Kelton, 1981). The fact that the sample being taken may not be a representative of the target population is the major disadvantage and thus inferences to an entire population are not supposed be made on the basis of this samples. The survey had one selection criterion was that one was to be a student undertaking the unit under investigation, male or student. The variables which were included in the dataset can be categorized into 3 groups. It is important to mentioning that the categorization of these variables depends entirely on the coding of the answers; there is no general rule that a variable can only be measured on a specific scale. For example, in one study, age can be taken as a categorical variable where age groups are given as possible answers, while in another situation the same age may be put as continuous by simply asking the respondent to give their age in years. One may also choose to recode continuous variables into categorical ones given a variable in categorical form it is not possible to make it continuous. Some of the variables that may fall into metric or scale category may include the age of respondents, number of adults in the house hold of a respondents, number of children in the house hold, monthly income of a respondent and the house hold income. In our study the item 3 where the respondent are asked to give the year of admission into the institution can be changed to scale by converting the year of admission into the number of years one has been a student in the institution. This can be achieved by simply subtracting the admission year from the current year. The second group of variables is categorical ones where the respondent had to select one answer from a set of given possibilities. In this study the variables that fall in this group included gender, the mode of study (part time or full time) and the type of student. In the analysis we look at three important techniques which are correlation, test and ANOVA. The correlation test will be used to investigate the pattern of the response given by respondents with regards to the categorical variables where we have a total of 20 items. Usually the analysis first would involve use of descriptive statistics in order to learn more about the focal variables but here we have omitted this. The descriptive techniques include frequencies, measures of location, measures of shape and cross-tabulations. The t-tests in this study have been used for testing hypothesis related to the type of student. ANOVA becomes appropriate in cases involving two or more categories that are to be compared. Thus for this study ANOVA is used to find out if there is any significant statistical difference by the year in which a degree was started for question 5 items. Limitation of research design The fact that the sample being taken may not be a representative of the target population is seen to be the major disadvantage and thus inferences to an entire population may be made on the basis of this sample. In using a questionnaire as a mode of data collection there is a possibility that some of the respondents gave false information and this is likely to distort the study outcome. Data analysis t-test result From table 1 (appendix 1) it can be seen that there was no significant difference between international students and domestic students for items in question 5. This is from the fact that in all the cases p>0.05 ANOVA test The result of the ANOVA test are as can be seen in where it can be seen that in some of the items there is statistically significant difference by year the students started their study for items in question 5. Bi-variate correlation Table 3 gives part of the correlation result of items in question 5. From the results it can be seen that the strongest correlation is 0.938 which is between item 6 and item 5. Other strong correlations can be seen in the table which have values of correlations of 0.7 or greater. References Crotty, M. (1998): The Foundations of Social Research: Meaning and Perspective in the Research Process. Sage Publications Ltd., Thousand Oaks Malhotra, N.K. & Birks, D.F. (2007). Marketing Research: An Applied Approach. (3rded). Harlow: Financial Times, Prentice Hall. Malhotra, NK 2010, ’Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation’ Global Edition, Pearson Education, New Jersey Michael, I., & Kotsi, F. (2016). Case study 11.1 - The repositioning of Goa, India. In Pike, S. (Ed). Destination Marketing Essentials. (2nd Ed.).Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 241-242. Teddlie, C. – Tashakkori, A. (2006): A General Typology of Research Designs Featuring Mixed Methods. Mid-South Educational Research Association, Research in the Schools,Vol. 13. No. 1, pp. 12-28. Zenker, S. (2011): How to Catch a City? The Concept and Measurement of Place Brands. Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 4. No. 1. pp. 40-52. Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Unit materials - learning Equal variances assumed .827 .364 -.886 194 .377 -.36411 .41109 -1.17489 .44667 Equal variances not assumed -.877 83.467 .383 -.36411 .41524 -1.18994 .46172 Unit materials - knowledge and skills Equal variances assumed 2.598 .109 -.196 194 .845 -.07507 .38241 -.82928 .67914 Equal variances not assumed -.189 79.327 .851 -.07507 .39824 -.86769 .71755 Teaching methods - help to learn Equal variances assumed .820 .366 -.299 194 .765 -.11644 .38965 -.88493 .65205 Equal variances not assumed -.306 88.892 .760 -.11644 .38000 -.87150 .63862 Topics and content Equal variances assumed .201 .654 -1.379 194 .170 -.57753 .41884 -1.40360 .24853 Equal variances not assumed -1.408 88.219 .163 -.57753 .41014 -1.39258 .23751 Assessment tasks Equal variances assumed .017 .897 -1.228 194 .221 -.51808 .42197 -1.35033 .31416 Equal variances not assumed -1.238 86.145 .219 -.51808 .41865 -1.35031 .31415 Guidelines and criteria Equal variances assumed .388 .534 -1.358 194 .176 -.34603 .25472 -.84841 .15636 Equal variances not assumed -1.363 85.419 .177 -.34603 .25392 -.85085 .15880 Requirement of overall assessment program Equal variances assumed 1.429 .233 -2.763 193 .006 -.50308 .18210 -.86223 -.14392 Equal variances not assumed -2.736 81.186 .008 -.50308 .18388 -.86893 -.13722 Resources - help to learn Equal variances assumed 2.464 .118 -2.045 194 .042 -.29466 .14412 -.57890 -.01042 Equal variances not assumed -1.925 76.900 .058 -.29466 .15307 -.59947 .01016 Feedback from students used Equal variances assumed .043 .835 -1.315 194 .190 -.35479 .26983 -.88696 .17737 Equal variances not assumed -1.268 79.894 .208 -.35479 .27976 -.91155 .20196 Overall importance of unit Equal variances assumed .186 .667 .634 194 .527 .14164 .22325 -.29867 .58195 Equal variances not assumed .632 84.289 .529 .14164 .22423 -.30425 .58754 Teaching staff - understanding expectations Equal variances assumed .213 .645 -.192 194 .848 -.04712 .24569 -.53169 .43745 Equal variances not assumed -.192 84.980 .848 -.04712 .24563 -.53550 .44125 Teaching staff - class atmosphere Equal variances assumed 5.767 .017 1.111 194 .268 .28137 .25333 -.21827 .78101 Equal variances not assumed 1.483 162.940 .140 .28137 .18967 -.09315 .65589 Teaching staff - friendly, enthusiastic, helpful Equal variances assumed 1.936 .166 .514 194 .608 .06493 .12632 -.18420 .31406 Equal variances not assumed .579 107.698 .564 .06493 .11218 -.15744 .28730 Teaching staff - genuine interest Equal variances assumed 3.474 .064 -1.399 194 .163 -.24575 .17564 -.59217 .10066 Equal variances not assumed -1.195 67.186 .236 -.24575 .20572 -.65635 .16484 Teaching staff - feedback Equal variances assumed .859 .355 -.987 194 .325 -.14192 .14372 -.42538 .14154 Equal variances not assumed -1.027 91.298 .307 -.14192 .13819 -.41641 .13258 Teaching staff - developing knowledge, understanding and skills Equal variances assumed 8.611 .004 -2.087 194 .038 -.35808 .17159 -.69651 -.01965 Equal variances not assumed -1.658 61.913 .102 -.35808 .21596 -.78980 .07364 Use of T&L resources and aids Equal variances assumed .183 .669 .314 194 .754 .05151 .16411 -.27216 .37517 Equal variances not assumed .282 71.651 .779 .05151 .18296 -.31325 .41627 Use of student feedback to improve teaching Equal variances assumed 1.548 .215 .109 194 .914 .01808 .16641 -.31012 .34629 Equal variances not assumed .116 96.735 .908 .01808 .15540 -.29035 .32651 Teaching, learning and assessment tasks used to help students learn Equal variances assumed .631 .428 -.669 194 .504 -.10658 .15921 -.42057 .20742 Equal variances not assumed -.621 75.275 .536 -.10658 .17150 -.44820 .23505 Overall importance of teaching Equal variances assumed .678 .411 -1.859 194 .065 -.29068 .15638 -.59911 .01774 Equal variances not assumed -1.678 72.293 .098 -.29068 .17323 -.63600 .05463 APPENDIX 1 Table 1 APPENDIX 2 Table 2 ANOVA Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Unit materials - learning Between Groups 729.444 3 243.148 94.014 .000 Within Groups 496.571 192 2.586 Total 1226.015 195 Unit materials - knowledge and skills Between Groups 666.277 3 222.092 109.181 .000 Within Groups 390.559 192 2.034 Total 1056.837 195 Teaching methods - help to learn Between Groups 786.604 3 262.201 161.914 .000 Within Groups 310.921 192 1.619 Total 1097.526 195 Topics and content Between Groups 1036.089 3 345.363 271.883 .000 Within Groups 243.890 192 1.270 Total 1279.980 195 Assessment tasks Between Groups 981.371 3 327.124 199.253 .000 Within Groups 315.216 192 1.642 Total 1296.587 195 Guidelines and criteria Between Groups 147.872 3 49.291 29.083 .000 Within Groups 325.408 192 1.695 Total 473.281 195 Requirement of overall assessment program Between Groups 3.201 3 1.067 .846 .470 Within Groups 240.871 191 1.261 Total 244.072 194 Resources - help to learn Between Groups 2.361 3 .787 1.001 .394 Within Groups 150.949 192 .786 Total 153.310 195 Feedback from students used Between Groups 8.295 3 2.765 1.016 .387 Within Groups 522.455 192 2.721 Total 530.750 195 Overall importance of unit Between Groups 13.931 3 4.644 2.570 .056 Within Groups 346.942 192 1.807 Total 360.872 195 Teaching staff - understanding expectations Between Groups 34.988 3 11.663 5.581 .001 Within Groups 401.257 192 2.090 Total 436.245 195 Teaching staff - class atmosphere Between Groups 10.192 3 3.397 1.429 .236 Within Groups 456.477 192 2.377 Total 466.668 195 Teaching staff - friendly, enthusiastic, helpful Between Groups .136 3 .045 .075 .973 Within Groups 115.308 192 .601 Total 115.444 195 Teaching staff - genuine interest Between Groups 1.469 3 .490 .420 .739 Within Groups 223.689 192 1.165 Total 225.158 195 Teaching staff - feedback Between Groups 3.220 3 1.073 1.404 .243 Within Groups 146.780 192 .764 Total 150.000 195 Teaching staff - developing knowledge, understanding and skills Between Groups 3.532 3 1.177 1.056 .369 Within Groups 213.994 192 1.115 Total 217.526 195 Use of T&L resources and aids Between Groups 3.072 3 1.024 1.026 .382 Within Groups 191.622 192 .998 Total 194.694 195 Use of student feedback to improve teaching Between Groups 3.430 3 1.143 1.116 .344 Within Groups 196.672 192 1.024 Total 200.102 195 Teaching, learning and assessment tasks used to help students learn Between Groups .524 3 .175 .183 .908 Within Groups 183.043 192 .953 Total 183.566 195 Overall importance of teaching Between Groups 3.406 3 1.135 1.235 .298 Within Groups 176.446 192 .919 Total 179.852 195 APPENDIX 3 Table 3 Read More