MNG10720 - Ecotourism Pricing in Australia: Research Approach

This research report details a mixed-methods research design to investigate the relationship between price and ecotourism in Australia, focusing on Kakadu National Park. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, including surveys administered to local and international visitors. The survey instrument includes questions about visitor motivations, environmental attitudes (measured using the Ecological Social Paradigm scale), and natural area involvement. Ethical considerations such as informed consent, confidentiality, and avoidance of deception are addressed. Data analysis will involve IBM-SPSS software, utilizing techniques like paired sample T-tests, Spearman correlation, descriptive statistics, and multiple regression analysis. The report also discusses instrument validity using content validity and the development of a Qualtrics survey for data collection. This comprehensive approach aims to provide insights into the influence of price on ecotourism choices among Australian tourists. Desklib provides students with access to a wealth of solved assignments and past papers.

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRICE AND ECOTOURISM IN AUSTRALIA
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Research design
The researcher will rely on both primary and secondary data to develop the proposed study.
Notably, a mixed research design will be used to strike a balance between the biases and
limitations of employing one method (Aguinis, 2006). In environmental surveys, the mixed
research approach is widely adopted in surveys involving ecotourism (Li, 2011). This study will
adopt mixed research design to explore the relationship between price and ecotourism in
Australia. According to Nagahara (2004), mixed methods research involves philosophical
assumptions in addition to other methods of inquiry. As a methodology, it is blended research
approach entails philosophical assumptions offer guidelines for collection and analysis of data
and the combination of quantitative and qualitative data in a particular survey or series of studies.
As Keightley (2010) explain, the central premise of a mixed research design is that the utilization
of qualitative and quantitative methods in combination offers better identification of research
problems than either of the method when used alone. Keightley (2010), also elaborates that
qualitative and Quantitative methods complement each other to enhance complete analysis of a
study. Vandenberg (2009) also notes that employing numerous sources of data and more than
one techniques of collecting data strengthens the results of a survey by supporting their cross-
validation.
Briefly, quantitative research entails quantifying the research problem through the generation of
numerical data or data that can be changed to statistics (Aguinis, 2006). According to
Vandenberg (2009), quantitative research is usually used to quantify behaviors, sentiments,
attitudes, and other defined factors and generalize outcomes from a larger sample population.
Quantitative surveys employ quantifiable data to uncover patterns and formulate facts in research
(Keightley, 2010). According to Dellaportas (2006), quantitative methods of data collection are

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more structured compared to qualitative methods of data collection. Quantitative methods of data
collection include the different forms of surveys such as mobile surveys, online surveys, and
paper surveys, telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, longitudinal surveys, online polls,
systematic observations and website interceptors.
On the other hand, qualitative studies capture the reality in extensive details and are mainly
useful when the emphasis is on a natural or contemporary setting with human as the main subject
of investigation (Nagahara, 2004). According to Vandenberg (2009), a qualitative survey can be
used to designate, create or test a theory. Notwithstanding, the qualitative research method has
been disapproved for missing systematic generalizability (Vandenberg, 2009). Nonetheless, it
has been contended that the aim of the qualitative survey is not to demonstrate inferences
concern a large number of populations, but instead to generalize back to a theory or an
application (Vandenberg, 2009).
Data collection methods
This survey will be piloted in Kakadu National Park, Australia where the investigator expects to
survey a total of 244 local and international visitors at the start of their visit. The research will
include commercial tourist residing at the two eco-lodges in the park or holiday at the park for a
day by independent visitors and coach roaming by own vehicles for a day visit or camping
excursion. Notably, the researcher will use convenience sampling to sample the participants to
be involved in the study and who will be required to take a self-administered questionnaire. This
survey tool will contain questions about their stimuli for the visit, environmental outlooks and
natural area involvement. A list of seven social inspirations and fascination motivations,
grounded on the Higginbottom and Scott (2008)) survey will be included. Besides, the
participants will be required to recognize many of these motivations as related to their current

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visit. As such, four of these motivations will be made familiar to all survey instrument will be
used as a basis for recognizing the participants as Eco-tourists as per the Hewett (2014) model.
To investigate the natural area involvement levels, the participants on excursion will be
requested to specify the duration in days they will be spending touring natural zones, which will
be computed as a fraction of the total days spent on the entire vacation. Notably, respondents on
a day tour will be requested to approximate how regularly they visit natural areas on an annual
basis. Environmental attitudes will be measured using a scale based on the Ecological Social
Paradigm (ESP) formulated by Olsen, Lodwick and Dunlap (Higginbottom and Scott, 2008). The
use of ESP scale will aim to overcome the confines of earlier worldview or paradigm scales by
including four indicators of ecological beliefs drawn from the four signs of environmental values
drawn from the alternative Environmental Paradigm of Stronza (2007) and New Environmental
Paradigm (NEP) scale of Beaumont (2001). The weight will be on human relationships with the
total ecosystem instead of on specific environmental issues. The original ESP scale comprises
eight sets of contradictory statements, and for each set of participants, they will be asked to
indicate where their belief or value will lie on a five-point Likert scale between the two
comments. To avoid response bias and for brevity, the researcher will reduce the range to eight
single statements, four anti-ESP and four pro-ESP, with each group including two value
statements and two 16 belief statements. Notwithstanding, the participants will be required to
assess the comments on a five-point scale from strongly disagree to agree strongly. Overall
scores will be computed and classified as sturdy ESP holder, moderate ESP holder, weak ESP
holder, or non-ESP holder. On this base, the participants who will be classified as sturdy ESP
holders will be regarded to have strong environmental attitudes.
Qualtrics survey

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Prior to rolling out the survey to respondents, approval will be got from the University. To
optimize on the response rate, the researcher will make use of two data collection methods for
each survey: i.e., online study and posting the survey tools to managers of the sampled Kakadu
National Park who will not respond through the other means. Also, phone surveys will be piloted
with the Kakadu National Park managers. Because the researcher expects this population to have
many issues to do with the time constraints, a shopping voucher will be offered as motivation to
those who complete the survey. Come early June; the polls will be emailed through Qualtrics
Online Survey Software (Peer et al., 2012) to all managers of Kakadu National Park with an
invitation letter elucidating the aim of the study, the incentives that will offer if they will reply to
the survey, and the confidential kind of the feedback. Besides, the researcher will also be sending
a weekly reminder to respondents who not have responded to the study for three weeks.
Concurrently, the researcher will mail surveys to managers and directors from whom complete
answers will be missing. Each envelope will contain the questionnaire, invitation letter, and
another envelope with the return postage and address. Furthermore, the directors of Kakadu
National Park who will not have replied will be called on the daily basis by the researcher during
the last two weeks of June.
Ethical considerations
Ethical values are ordered into four: absence of informed consent, deception, harming the
participants, and invasion of discretion (Humphreys, 2016). To start with, the researcher will
adhere to the ethical principle of the absence of informed consent. According to di Norcia
(2006), eligible participants should get as much info necessary to choose whether to engage in a
survey or not. For the planned researcher, the researcher will give out information to the
respondents regarding the study and his contact details for further questions by the participants

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when a needed arises. Another ethical issue that the researcher will observe is the risk of
harming both the respondents and the business to be surveyed (Aguinis, 2006). The danger of
hurting the participants in this survey will be avoided by making the data collection instrument
anonymous and by keeping the responses as confidential as possible. Furthermore, to protect the
participation of the nominated organization in the proposed survey, the researcher will keep their
names unidentified. Other than the above two ethical values, the researcher will also take note of
the invasion of the privacy principle of research ethics (Schwab, 2006). The researcher expects
that at one point the participant could regard some inquiries to be so sensitive and thus would
prefer not respond. For the looming study, the researcher will allow the participants to skip some
questions that will deem too sensitive to them. Last, of all, the researcher will also adhere to the
principle of deception in research ethics. According to Schoonenboom (2017), deception in
research occurs when a participant is made to accept that a survey is a different thing than what it
is. For this research, clear clarification of the purpose of the study will be given by the
researcher. Besides, the researcher will be willing and remain available to answer any arising
questions from respondents when needed.
Data Analysis
The collected quantitative data will be analyzed using IBM-SPSS (version 22 software), and the
analytical technics that will be used will include paired sample T-test, Spearman correlation,
descriptive statistics, and multiple regression analysis. Correspondingly, exploratory data
analysis will be conducted at an earlier stage to give evidence for choosing the type of inferential
statistics like multi-collinearity and normality (Nagahara, 2004). For instrument validity in the
proposed study, the researcher will use content validity because according to Schoonenboom
(2017), it is sufficient to evaluate the goodness of an instrument. It warrants that the objects in

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the study are appropriate, sufficient, and demonstrative enough to be certified by a panel of
judges (Schwab, 2006).
Paired Sample T-test
The first section of the questionnaire will be designed to collect data concerning the number of
eco-tourist in Australia that arrive at Kakadu National Park on a monthly bases and the prices
they are charged during their visits. In the proposed study, the researcher will use a paired
sample T-test to compare the mean score of the overall tourist visits and price charges using
Multiple Linear Regression and Spearman Correlation.
Referencing List
Aguinis, H. (2006). Editorial: Organizational Research Methods Yearly Update. Organizational
Research Methods, 9(1), pp.3-4.

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Beaumont, N. (2001). Ecotourism and the Conservation Ethic: Recruiting the Uninitiated or
Preaching to the Converted?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 9(4), pp.317-341.
Dellaportas, S. (2006). Making a Difference with a Discrete Course on Accounting Ethics.
Journal of Business Ethics, [online] 65(4), pp.391-404. Available at:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-006-0020-7 [Accessed 23 May 2018].
di Norcia, V. (2006). The Ethics in Human Research Ethics. Journal of Empirical Research on
Human Research Ethics, 1(2), pp.1-2.
ewett, P. (2014). Cooper Creek Wilderness: perspectives on maintaining a successful
ecotourism-driven private protected area in Australia. Journal of Ecotourism, 13(1), pp.64-70.
Higginbottom, K. and Scott, N. (2008). Strategic Planning of Wildlife Tourism in Australia.
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Keightley, E. (2010). Remembering research: memory and methodology in the social sciences.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 13(1), pp.55-70.
Li, P. (2011). Estimation of sample selection models with two selection mechanisms.
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Mingers, J. and Rosenhead, J. (2011). Introduction to the Special Issue: Teaching Soft O.R.,
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2018].

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Nagahara, Y. (2004). A method of simulating multivariate nonnormal distributions by the
Pearson distribution system and estimation. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 47(1),
pp.1-29.
Peer, E., Paolacci, G., Chandler, J. and Mueller, P. (2012). Screening Participants from Previous
Studies on Amazon Mechanical Turk and Qualtrics. SSRN Electronic Journal.
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Schwab, D. (2006). Book Review: Research Methods for Organizational Studies. Organizational
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