Quantitative and Qualitative Data: Survey Questionnaires

For decision-making, Veal (2011) argues that people in policy and management roles such as government staffers and sport managers look for quantifiable data so that they can know the answers to how many of X did/do/are Y. Survey questionnaires are an approach to data collection that are characterised by being structured, often into categories, to obtain data on variables and/or characteristics (for example: Sarantakos, 2005, de Vaus, 2002, Sirakaya-Turk and Uysal, 2011, Veal, 2011, Walter, 2010c). A “key feature of questionnaire-based surveys is that they depend on respondents’ own accounts of their behaviour, attitudes and intentions” (Veal, 2011, p. 127). Kavanaugh et al. (2005, p. 122) argue similarly to Veal (2011) in that “survey instruments are useful mechanisms for capturing quantitative data in the form of self-reported traits, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours”. These “surveys are probably the most commonly used method in leisure and tourism research” (Veal, 2011, p. 127). They carry the advantage that they can be utilised in a manner to seek answers to both structured quantitative and open-ended qualitative questions and can be used to “return to the subjects for additional information” to build the picture

(Veal, 2011, p. 127). This ability to return to build the data assisted the two-visit case study approach of this research. The surveys were predominantly quantitative in nature but afforded questions that elicited qualitative responses (see Appendices 1 and 2).

The Internet has affected how social research is conducted (Sarantakos, 2005). The Internet has made it easier to disseminate survey instruments through the use of email and web-platforms (de Vaus, 2002, Singleton Jr. and Straits, 2002, Sarantakos, 2005, Walter, 2010c, Veal, 2011). When undertaking the process of Internet sampling, a researcher can access email databases to distribute esurveys or links to URLs into which the esurvey can be found. Tools such as SurveyMonkey, Zoomerang and CreateSurvey assist to design quick online surveys. SurveyMonkey is a web- based survey construction tool that “has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily” (SurveyMonkey, 2011). It enables the survey designer and the end-user to utilise a web-based platform without requiring the installation of software onto a computer.

According to Fontana and Frey (2003), Schaefer and Dillman (1998) found that better quality data and more detailed answers to qualitative questions can be received from email surveys compared to mail surveys. Veal (2011) argues that mail surveys, although still popular, have costs and slow response rates and transmission that are drawbacks to this method.

2010 Esurvey Questionnaire

The 2010 Falls esurvey was conducted, as Veal (2011) would describe, as a fully electronic survey. The questionnaire was conducted fully online. The esurvey was entitled Social & Leisure Survey on the Falls Music & Arts Festival 2010 (see Appendix 1). It was designed take approximately ten minutes to complete. Participants were asked questions in four sections in areas such as motivations for attendance at the Falls, forms of communication, wellbeing status, social participation in society and

social networking prior to, during and following the Falls. The esurvey also captured basic demographic information such as gender, age, income level and educational achievement as they can be utilised as variables to assess social capital (e.g. socio- economic status) (see ABS, 2004).

Only people who attended the 2010 Festival and those aged eighteen or over were permitted to complete the survey, primarily due to difficulties in obtaining parental consent. Participants could only be identified by their email address of which participants supplied voluntarily for a prize draw of two tickets to the 2011 event. The esurvey only consisted of minor consequence data such as basic demographic data and opinions. The survey was designed to gain an overall picture of social behaviour at the Falls and day-to-day life to compare.

From the establishment of the research question and sub-questions asked in this thesis, the ability to identify and examine social capital in the Falls context, if present, was required. Numerous indicators for social capital underpin the questions asked in the esurvey. Indicators such as frequency of interaction, trust, access to resources, community participation, reciprocity, tolerance and political engagement (see ABS, 2000) assist to answer the research question through identifying whether social capital may exist at the Falls (and continue on beyond it). To add rigour to findings, all questions in the esurvey used in the study were based on previously tested research questions. They were directly linked to questions and/or indicators used and validated within the following frameworks and instruments:

 ABS’s Measuring Wellbeing: Frameworks for Australian Social Statistics 2001

 ABS’s Measuring Social Capital: An Australian Framework and Indicators 2004

 ABS’s 2005-06 Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events survey

 ABS’s 2006 General Social Survey

 Centre of Comparative Social Surveys’ European Social Survey – Round 5, 2010/11

The Measuring Wellbeing 2001 report by the ABS (2001, p. 282) provides a culture and leisure participation framework. The questions in the survey were also informed in part by this framework.

In this post-event esurvey, participants were asked to reflect back on their experiences with a particular emphasis on network maintenance post-event and the outcomes of their social interactions while at the event. The Seven Point Likert scale was chosen for appropriate questions in the esurvey. The Likert scale is a uni- dimensional method, as discussed by the Web Centre for Social Research Methods (2010). This is considered an appropriate approach given the single variables being questioned in each response. Likert scales afford a wide range of options on a numerical scale that is ordinal (see Statistics@Swinburne, 2011) and enable analyses such as correlations to be conducted (Pallant, 2005). A series of yes/no questions and open-ended questions such as ‘if so/not, why?’ and ‘please explain’ were included to identify opinions and experiences.

A target population is that from which it is required to derive information (Sarantakos, 2005). In Pegg and Patterson’s (2010, p. 91) study they state:

The target population for the study were visitors to the TCMF [Tamworth Country Music Festival] in January 2008. A suitable study respondent was defined as any individual aged 18 years or older who was present in a specified geographical region at the time the research was undertaken and who did not reside in the Tamworth region.

The target population for the esurvey was similar in that it was all attendees of the Falls 2010 aged over eighteen years of age. Considering the target population sample of people eligible to participate in the study, predominantly younger people, it was feasible to utilise online techniques to create and disseminate the survey (Walter, 2010c). This approach maximises researcher time and produces ready- made data sets contained within an electronic database of responses. The online approach also enabled participants to complete the esurvey at their leisure within a six-week period. It was designed to be user-friendly and respondent-completed (Veal, 2011).

The online, web-based SurveyMonkey tool (SurveyMonkey, 2010) facilitated this process. The SurveyMonkey tool is a tried and tested tool used within universities and industry. The utilisation of online, web-platform tools proved to be a productive approach to gathering suitable data for this study. The SurveyMonkey tool was selected from an array of online esurvey tools as it is quick and easy to use and offered scope for the cross-tabulation of data sets (SurveyMonkey, 2010, 2011). SurveyMonkey also allows for the creation of a web-link to an esurvey (SurveyMonkey, 2010). This is viewed as an efficient means of data collection given the target audience. The SurveyMonkey tool enables data sets to be converted into SPSS format (IBM, 2011) for data analysis.

Follow-up and reminder techniques are a key to increasing response rates (Veal, 2011). The use of the SurveyMonkey web-tool, a website, a social media interface and the Falls email subscriber list facilitated rapid and easy transmission and collection of information for the esurveys. The esurvey link was promoted via a media release (University of Tasmania, 2011), through status updates on the Leisure Spaces Facebook page (Hawkins, 2011a), through a website created by the researcher called Leisure Spaces (Hawkins, 2011b) and emails by Ashlorien Management Pty Ltd, owners of the Festival, to their email subscriber list. These were staged over the six-week survey period and were interfaces with which the

researcher was intimately familiar. This process aligned with Walter’s (2006a) practical and resource perspectives on research.

2011 Survey Questionnaire

The 2011 Falls survey was conducted on-site by a team of four researchers from a marquee in the Marion Markets section of the Falls site.24 The survey was entitled

Weak Ties in Leisure: The Role of Outdoor Music Festivals Survey (see Appendix 2). It was designed to take four to five minutes to complete. Participants were asked questions in four sections – Marion Bay Falls Social Networking, Marion Bay Falls Vibe, Technology and Marion Bay Falls Spend. Like the esurvey, the face-to-face survey also captured basic demographic information such as gender, age, income level and educational achievement. Only people who attended the 2011 Festival and those aged eighteen or over were permitted to complete the survey, again primarily due to difficulties in obtaining parental consent. Participants could only be identified by their email address which participants supplied voluntarily for a prize draw of two tickets to the 2012 event. The survey only consisted of minor consequence data such as basic demographic data and opinions.

In the 2011 survey the questions were designed to deepen understanding of data and insights gathered from the Falls in phase one of the study and also to check findings. However, a particular focus of the questions related to the place characteristics. The approach explored further some unexpected insights that emerged from phase one. For example, a strong finding in phase one was the role that ‘vibes’ played in their experience – the vibe of the attendees (the people), the vibe of the venue (the place) and the festival vibe (the activity).25 Thus in phase two a specific focus was to illuminate more about the role of the vibes and how they interact to create the festival experience. Questions were also asked in a yes/no/unsure or an agree/disagree/unsure format to identify if participants agreed

24 _{The Marion Markets are described in chapter four.} 25

with what the researcher had identified from the 2010 study. The remainder of the questions were designed for participants to tick the appropriate response/s – for example, Which forms of Social Technologies do you use on a daily basis?