Why did I chose that data?
I chose to use questionnaires because it was the best way of collecting first-hand information. Using questionnaires is relatively quick and efficient and it allowed me to collect data that could help answer my particular hypotheses. If I collate the information from my questionnaires, I can present the data into complex graphs to show relationships and trends between different pieces of information. The finalised questionnaire is on the opposite page and here are the justifications for each question, the problems experienced and how we over came the problems for the questions. I have only included the justifications for the questions that I needed to help prove or disprove my hypotheses, so therefore, I will not justify the other questions because these questions are needed to answer my hypotheses but not directly. I could have included just the questions that were relevant to my hypotheses, but my group members also used this questionnaire and so therefore, they had to use most of the other questions to answer their hypotheses.
Question 2: This question is needed to answer one of my hypotheses, ‘most of the tourists that come to Dubai are European Nationals.’ This question would tell me were the tourist is from exactly and from this, I can tally up the countries and see where most of the tourists come from.
Question 5: This question asks the person how long it took them to travel in hours. This gives me an idea of how far the person had to travel which can help me answer my hypothesis, ‘the further the distance from Dubai, the longer the stay.’
Question 9: This question helps me answer the second part of the previous hypothesis. After I surveyed the tourists, I made a crucial error in the answers of this question. Before I surveyed, I made the answers for this question closed questions which only give discrete data. I am trying to prove the hypothesis; to do this correctly, I have to plot a scatter graph which is able to graph a correlation which shows a relationship between the distance traveled and the length of stay in Dubai. I shouldn’t have made these answers discrete; I should have made them open questions which give each person who I asked a data source which would let me plot it on a scatter graph.
Questions 13 and 19 (they’re similar): Question 13 is a closed question and question 19 is an open question which lets the tourist speak freely on what activities they take part in Dubai. I need both of these questions to help me answer on of my other hypotheses, ‘Most tourists that come to Dubai are passive tourists.’ These questions would provide me with data to find out if most of the tourists were either passive or active ones.
Question 15: This question is basic question which helps me answer my hypothesis, ‘The weather is a major factor that influences the number of tourists that visit throughout the course of the year.’ It gives me backbone knowledge of the views of tourists have on the climate or weather of Dubai. When surveyed to, the tourists could also provide me with some personal information which I could take into account regarding the views on the weather of Dubai and what factors of Dubai persuaded them to visit.
1. Do you live in Dubai or are you just visiting? Resident Tourist
2. Where do you live? (Country) – Please specify:
3. Why did you visit Dubai? Culture and tradition Recreational Activities
Landscape of wildlife Family or friends Shopping Leisure
Business - Other please state:
4. Where did you hear about Dubai? Television Friends or family Magazines
Travel agents - Other please specify:
5. Length of travel - 1-5 hours 5-10 hours 10 or more hours
6. How did you travel here? Plane Boat Car Other please state:
7. Are you here with your family? Yes No
8. How many people are you traveling with? 1-2 3-4 5 or more
9. How long are you staying in Dubai for? Below 1 week 1-2 weeks 2 or more
10. Is this your first time to visit Dubai? Yes No
11. Where are you staying in Dubai? (State hotel or other accommodation)
12. Why are you staying here? Cheap Location Facilities and leisure features
Recommendations - Other please state:
13. What leisure activities are you taking part in? Desert safaris, mountain climbing and
Shopping Hotels resorts and beaches other physical activities
Culture and Historical Museums - Other please specify:
14. Are you interested in going shopping in Dubai? Yes No
15. Do you like the climate of Dubai? Yes No I don’t mind it
16. How does it differ from your own country, please state?
17. How does Dubai differ from your past holidays? Please specify?
18. Do you plan on visiting Dubai again? Yes No Possibly
19. If so what activities would you take part in?
Where are you planning to shop? At a mall at a Souk At a local shop
Not planning to shop
20. Is this a one-stop holiday or are you visiting somewhere else as well? If so, where?
One-stop Other please state:
Sampling:
In this investigation, I was disorganised and due to that, I didn’t use a correct sampling method. I didn’t actually use any of the sampling methods because I asked random people, at random places and random times. With those circumstances, this investigation cannot be fair and it is incomplete. If I was organised, I could have chosen to sample systematically which means that for example, I could have sampled every third person which would make the sampling more fair because every person has a equal chance, thus, giving me more accurate results.
How did I obtain the data?
The main method I used when collecting primary data was the use of questionnaires which are reliable if you have a large sample size, but in my circumstances, there wasn’t a large sample size. They are relatively quick to use but to get accurate results when using questionnaires, I should have sampled systematically. However, I didn’t do this because I was not organised at the time of creating, issuing and arranging where to sample, so therefore I forgot to sample correctly.
When I was the Oasis Beach Hotel and the Mall of the Emirates, I took a few pictures of the surroundings which are shown in the 1st chapter. Here is the letter to get permission for my survey at the hotel.
Dear sir/madam:
I am writing this letter to ask my permission to survey at the Oasis Beach Hotel on the Thursday 20th of April. I am conducting a survey on the tourists that visit Oasis Beach Hotel for my Geography GCSE coursework and I would be very grateful if you let me do these questionnaires at this hotel. Please reply as soon as possible on my mobile phone number, 050889440 or my house phone number, 043484106. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Matthew Eden
The manager of the Oasis Beach Hotel granted me permission to survey the tourists at the hotel. I surveyed on Thursday April 20th from 12:00 to 3:00 primarily in the lobby. We surveyed at this time, day and date because the time of the day was an active time when all the tourists were eating lunch, going to there rooms, going on sight seeing buses and doing many other activities. I chose that day and date because Thursday is a day when my group member and I were able to survey and that day was one that all the tourists were out and about enjoying the weekend festivities.
We stood and surveyed tourists in the lobby primarily because we were not allowed to go outside on the beach and also we weren’t allowed near the rooms of the occupants. However, this didn’t affect any sort of survey count because the lobby was ideal. Tourists were coming and going to there rooms, sight seeing buses, swimming pools, beach, restaurants information desk and also the souvenir shops and stalls. It was the best place to ask the tourists passing by because most of them had the time to spend two or three minutes to express their opinions on my questionnaire.
Each tourist was asked in the same way; I surveyed them by standing next to them letting them view the questionnaire and see the answer choices but I also asked the questions verbally which made the person feel more at ease when surveyed. It was the quickest way and least stressful way of asking the questions. In total, the number of people questioned in the Oasis Beach Hotel was 41. The total number people surveyed in the mall of emirates is 10 and the total in the Marriot Hotel in the Green Community was 34. The overall total number people surveyed is 85.
Secondary Data Collection
What methods did I use?
The main methods of secondary data collection I used was the internet, newspaper articles and my geography book, Tomorrow’s Geography, which had specific information on tourism and statistics on tourism growth. All these methods were very much useful for my investigation because it provided me with necessary statistics and figures to provide evidence in my hypotheses and other pieces of information.
Why did I chose that data?
It was very easy and quick to collect data from because it is always available; however, compared to primary data collection, secondary data was faster to search for and easier because I didn’t have to go anywhere to survey people at hotels or other places. On the other hand, primary data provides new information, is reliable and is specific for what you are looking for but secondary data can be out of date and not always reliable.
How did I obtain the data?
I researched the information in a variety of ways. I researched articles on the Gulf news every day to find out information on the recent developments in Dubai such as the Dubai Marina and the Nakheel projects as stated in chapter 1: tourism issues. It also provides me with increases and decreases in the tourism growth and the statistics on the number of tourists visiting particular hotels. I also researched specific and relevant tourism chapters in my geography textbook that was given to me by the geography department. I also researched numerous tourism websites that was relevant to Dubai which really helped me with my investigation because this provided me with some of the reasons and explanations of the increase of tourism in Dubai and the facts that are evident.
Here is the data table taken from the questionnaire results.
This is some data I collected from the internet regarding the average temperature and rainfall levels in Dubai during the course of the year. This will help me understand the different the climate of Dubai Fully for one of my hypotheses.
Limitations and Problems
Limitations of data collection:
In this investigation, I was making every effort to make it unbiased, representative and reliable as possible but it was very difficult to guarantee this in my data collection. Therefore the investigation can only be said as being incomplete, biased, unreliable, limited and tentative. To successfully provide the study with enough evidence to prove the relationships and trends of the hypotheses, I would have to have much of a larger sample size (probably around 250 or 500), however I couldn’t have possible accomplished this because I don’t have enough time to do so.
Problems:
There a huge amount of problem during this study. Firstly, two or three of the questions were poor and people had trouble trying to understand them fully. A small minority of the people I surveyed couldn’t speak English at all or very poorly, so therefore the information wasn’t collected for those people. The sampling method was not professional, not correct and was not applied as efficiently as it should have been if I had more time and less confusion within my group. We also had group organisational problems; two of the members in our group went on Easter holiday and couldn’t go out and question the tourists in hotels or anywhere else in Dubai. The person who was supposed to be organising the copying and printing of the questionnaires didn’t get the correct questionnaire on time for an earlier visit to a hotel and also didn’t print enough copies of the questionnaire, however, we didn’t get the chance to use all questionnaires anyway. We had 6 members in the group to survey; we split the group into 2 separate groups: one that went to the mall of the emirates, oasis beach hotel and one that went to the green community. The group that surveyed at the oasis beach hotel and the mall of the emirates (including me) did successfully get enough questionnaires done but the other group didn’t because they were on holiday and was a slacking group of people. I first sent the letter confirming and asking permission to survey at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel but unfortunately due to policies do to with the guests and safety we were not allowed to visit and survey the tourists. When surveying in the mall of the emirates, I couldn’t possibly get a suffice amount of data from the people because they were moving in different directions in a rush. It was inconvenient for them to be questioned especially when they were walking, relaxing and browsing around the mall. This is why I didn’t get a large amount of data from this survey site.
Solutions to Limitations and Problems:
With some knowledge of French, I spoke French to 3 or 4 French people who couldn’t speak English well which did give me a few more surveys to be completed. After I was denied to survey at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, I thought of going to the Oasis Beach Hotel which is only a 4 star hotel which didn’t have as harsh policies towards the guests staying there. So therefore, I sent a letter asking permission to do a survey there and I was granted the reply. Since I had slacking and absent members in my group, I had to do the work myself with one other group member. We were the ones that went to the Oasis Beach Hotel and the Mall of the Emirates but also, another person surveyed the tourists at the Marriot.
