Data Collection Techniques

Data collection is viewed as one of the most important activities in the scope of study of the researcher. For this reason, the researcher has carried out two times for his field visits back to Vietnam, in which the study case of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces are located in. The first field visit was implemented from October 2011 to March 2012 and the second field visit was done from February 2013 to June 2013. The main purposes of these two field visits are to gather the data served for the analysis of actual potentials and the strengths for the Cultural Heritage Tourism development as well as to identify the main problems for the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism in the two provinces. As cited in Patton‟s guidelines for field work, the message is as clear as this: “What you do in the field – it all depends - but don‟t lose direction!”. Field studies are a continuous learning process. It may assist the bewildered analyst to be reminded of Barley‟s advice:

“When in doubt, collect facts” (Mikkelsen, 1995:247).

Therefore, the researcher is fully aware of the importance of field visit, where he could sufficiently collect the data. A field work which the researcher has realized will obtain a summary of guidelines as follow: be descriptive in taking field notes; gather a variety of information from different perspectives; cross-validate and triangulate by gathering different kinds of data-observations, interviews, programme documentation, recordings, and photographs- and using multiple methods;

use quotations, represent programme participants in their own terms. Capture participants‟ views of their experiences in their own words; select key informants wisely and use them carefully. Draw on the wisdom of their informed perspectives, but keep in mind that their perspectives are limited. In

order to achieve a good field work, the researcher has paid much attention for the guidelines of field work. The researcher has also used the following data collection methods, namely document, observation, in-depth and focused group interviews in his field visit.

Secondary Data

DOCUMENTS: documents can be treated as a source of data in their own right in effect an alternative to questionnaires, interviews or observation. The documentary sources such as government publications and official statistics, newspapers and magazines, records of meetings, letters and memos, diaries are written sources. There are, though, alternative types of documents for research, which take the form of visual sources (pictures, artefacts) and even sounds (music) (Denscombe, 2010).

In this study, the researcher has tried to approach data sources from the relevant agencies and institutions of the central and local authorities who are working in the domain of tourism management and cultural activities management in both Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam, for example, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Sports, the Provincial Departments of Culture, Tourism &

Sports, Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, Quang Nam Monuments Conservation Centre, the People‟s Committees of the two provinces, and other concerned agencies. Moreover, the researcher has also tried to access the other data sources from the international organisations such as UNESCO, UNWTO and the like through their documents, books, reports, articles, newspapers, websites in internet, maps, photos, and so on in order to obtain necessary research data.

Primary Data

OBSERVATION: “Observation offers the social researcher a distinct way of collecting data. It does not rely on what people say they do, or what they say they think. It is more direct than that.

Instead, it draws on the direct evidence of the eyes to witness events at first hand. It is based on the premise that, for certain purposes, it is best to observe what actually happens” (Dencombe, 2010).

Observation is one way to collect primary data. Observation is a purposeful, systematic and selective way of watching and listening to an interaction or phenomenon as it takes place (Kumar, 2005:119).

A non-participant observation is “when you, as a researcher do not get involved in the activities of the group but remains a passive observer, watching and listening to its activities and drawing conclusions from this” (Kumar, 2005:120). In this study, the researcher has used observation as a useful tool of gathering data. The researcher has observed both the phenomenon (situational context) of cultural heritages and its related issues of Cultural Heritage Tourism development as well as the interaction of key respondents, especially visitors to the cultural heritages. Observation is used systematically by the researcher to validate the present situation of cultural heritage and the concerned issues in the development of Cultural Heritage Tourism such as infrastructure, tourism facilities and services, negative impacts of natural disasters and of rapid urbanization. The data gathered by observation will be described in details in the phase of data collection and data analysis. Some useful tools such as

photos will also be used to give out clear evidence and to validate the criteria which the researcher has selected.

Observation of Situational Context (Phenomenon) of Cultural Heritage Tourism: The researcher has tried to observe directly the existing context of cultural heritages tourism (monuments, old houses and buildings and the like). The researcher has also tried to observe the setting of the Cultural Heritage Tourism development in terms of infrastructure (situation of roads, seaport, railway, electricity, water, health care system), facilities and services (hotels, resorts, restaurants, recreational and shopping centres), negative of natural disasters and rapid urbanization and so on.

Observation of Interactions of People to Cultural Heritages: the researcher has observed the activities and interactions of the people through their attitudes and behaviours to the activities of the Cultural Heritage Tourism development and management in Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue provinces. Especially, observations for the activities of the visitors, who are regarded as the buyers of local tourist products are paid much attention to assess adequately their interactions to the duties of cultural heritages preservation. As we know, the advantages of observation are that data which are collected are more objective and generally more accurate.

INTERVIEW (Individual or In-depth and Focused Group Interviews): Interviewing is a commonly used method of collecting information from people. In many walks of life we collect information through different forms of interaction with others. Any person-to-person interaction between two or more individuals with a specific purpose in mind is called interview. On the one hand, interviewing can be very flexible, when the interviewer has the freedom to formulate questions as they come to mind around the issue being investigated; and on the other hand, it can be inflexible, when the investigator has to keep strictly to the questions decided beforehand (Kumar, 2005:123-126).

Structured Interview Method: the researcher will also utilize the method of structured interview which include both individual (in-depth) and focused group interviews. Interviews were used for the collection of straightforward factual information, their potential as a data collection method is better exploited when they are applied to the exploitation of more complex and subtle phenomena.

Moreover, the reason that the researcher would like to use interviews as the data collection method because it will help him to understand better the people‟s opinions, feelings, emotions, attitudes, behaviours, and experiences. This is an important advantage of interview-based research method in comparison with the method of observation, in which it could not understand the feelings and emotions from the people.

A Combination of Both Individual Interviews and Focus Group Interviews: the researcher has applied a combination of individual and focus groups interviews in this study due to their real benefits.

The former has some advantages such as: it is relatively easy to arrange, it stems from one source – interviewee, it is relatively easy to control. Meanwhile the later has advantages, i.e. it helps the researcher to grasp different responses from interviewees, a broader spectrum of people, a greater

variety of experiences and opinions emerging from the investigation. In the scope of this study, a strong focus for realizing the focus group interview is given by the researcher. As we know, a focus group is another qualitative data-gathering method. With this group-interview method, people who share similar expertise are brought together and asked their opinions and ideas about a particular topic. Most groups are made up of five to twelve people. The expected questions that the researcher would like to give out are mainly focused on the problems and potentials in the development of Cultural Heritages Tourism and the essential interventions tools for achieving them.

Interview Guide: The interview guide varies from highly scripted to relatively loose, but they all share certain features: they help to know what to ask about, in what sequence, how to pose the questions, and how to pose follow-ups. They provide guidance about what to do or say next, after the interviewee has answered the last question (Dencombe, 2010). Before conducting interviews, the researcher makes an interview guide to help him direct the conversation toward the topics and issues he wants to learn about (see annex i).

Questionnaires: “A questionnaire is a written list of questions, the answers to which are recorded by respondents” (Kumar, 2005:126) and “sample size depends on the experience of a researcher or skills, budget, and elements of the research” (Kumar, 1999). In this study, questionnaires are prepared carefully by the researcher served for the interviews.

Key Informants: the researcher have chosen (1) The officers who are working at the central institutions located in the two provinces, particularly the agencies and departments working in the domain of cultural heritage conservation and preservation, tourism management, development planning. (2) Tourist Operators: tour operators, hotels, restaurants, etc. and (3) Visitors: both international and domestic tourists. In terms of the interview questionnaire design, the questionnaire is designed with a focus on the proper structure and contents of questions. Regarding the structure, it will be firstly designed with a brief introduction about the researcher and his research work. The researcher has also tried to ensure the proper length of questions, a number of appropriate questions. An expression of gratitude from the researcher to the informants will be put at the end of the questionnaire “Thank you very much for your cooperation”. For the questions, the researcher has combined both direct and indirect questions, of which the direct questions are served for obtaining the information he needs and the indirect questions are used to make the respondents feel comfortable to answer the questions and therefore, the researcher can attain what he desires.

The Table 5.2 indicates three different kinds of key respondents such as officers, visitors (international and domestic), and tourist operators. The key respondents are 129 people in total. In order to make a clear explanation in the analysis chapters concerning the key respondents‟ ideas in terms of every specific topic, the researcher will code the number of respondent as follows: n=129 (all respondents), n=52 (public officials), n=12 (tourist operators), n=65 (visitors).

Table 5.2: Summary of Key Respondents No. Types of Respondents Number of

Respondents

Notes

1. Public Officials 52

2. Tourist Operators 12

3. Visitors 65 International Visitors (40), Domestic

Visitors (25)

Total 129

Source: Researcher