Chapter 3 Research Methods
3.2 Research Paradigm and Ethics
3.3.2 Qualitative: Focus group interviews
had not had any VFR tourism experience were directed to the end of the questionnaire.
focus group interviews have been proved useful following the analysis of a large-scale quantitative survey because they can facilitate further discussion of quantitative results and add more insight to the responses received from the structured survey.
The focus group technique is an alternative to the in-depth interview in situations when it may not be practical to arrange for individual in-depth interviews (Veal, 2011, p.245). With the current study, it was determined that organising and conducting one-on-one in-depth interviews throughout New Zealand would be impractical due to time and financial constraints. Hence, focus group interviews represent a reasonable trade-off between qualitative insight and the practicalities of field work. They allow the researcher to cover a wide range of perspectives from participants more efficiently in a given timeframe. The following sections explain how the interview questions for the focus groups were developed, and how the participants were selected.
3.3.2.1 Development of interview questions
Interview questions were based on the three main research questions but sought to examine them in more depth. Since the focus groups were conducted after the online structured survey started, some questions were developed to elaborate upon initial, and partial, analysis of collected quantitative data. Most questions were open-ended which enabled participants to express their opinions with richness. It is important to acknowledge that the diversity in focus groups can also easily lead to overelaboration of questions being asked (indeed, in the current study it was sometimes difficult to moderate them). Stewart et al. (2007) suggested two principles when developing questions for focus groups. Questions should be ordered, first, from the more general to the more specific and, second, by the relative importance of the questions to the research agenda. The development of interview questions in this study followed these principles.
The interview questions were structured into three main themes based on the research questions. The first theme was about the general characteristics of international PhD students’ VFR tourism behaviour in New Zealand. In the second theme, questions were developed to examine students’ roles as hosts and guests when participating in VFR tourism. The third theme focused on students’ domestic VF tourism experiences.
It examined how these experiences play a role in the sociocultural adaptation of
international PhD students while studying in New Zealand. The questions served as guidance for the researcher to moderate the focus group discussions. In certain cases, the developed questions could be altered depending on participants’ answers to make sure that necessary data were obtained as efficiently as possible (see Appendix A.2 for the list of prepared indicative questions).
3.3.2.2 Recruitment of focus group participants
To be eligible for the focus groups, in addition to meeting the two criteria to participate in the online structured survey, participants needed to have had some VFR tourism experiences during their study in New Zealand. Since the focus group discussions focused on the perceived role of these experiences in sociocultural adaptation and the nature of the host–guest relationship, only those who had had such experiences were considered. To ensure that those criteria were met, participants in the focus groups were recruited via the structured online survey. At the end of the survey, respondents were asked if they would be interested in taking part in the focus groups discussions. Because only respondents who had had some VFR tourism experience during their studies in New Zealand were able to pass the filtering question of the questionnaire and proceed to the end of the survey, those who expressed their interest in the focus groups therefore met all the criteria mentioned previously. The researcher then used the students’ stated contact details to contact them to follow up on their potential participation. This process was convenient because no separate recruiting method was required. Also, it allowed the researcher to screen the potential participants, to control the number of participants for each group, and to ensure that those who comprised the focus groups were as diverse as possible.
The goal of focus groups is to develop multiple explanations and descriptions of a phenomenon from shared discussion (Finn, Elliott-White, & Walton, 2000).
Therefore, the more diverse the groups are (both within and between groups), the more depth and subtlety in understanding the phenomena is captured. It is suggested that focus groups be composed of 6–12 participants (Stewart et al., 2007; Veal, 2011).
In the current study, the aim was to have between 6 and 10 participants for each focus group.
As mentioned earlier, the focus group participants were recruited via the online survey and it was dependent on the level of interest expressed by the students who
completed the questionnaire. Hence, together with the restrictions on the time and research budgets, focus group interviews took place at five chosen universities only (University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington, Lincoln University, University of Canterbury, and University of Otago). These institutions were selected for reasons of geographic spread, significant international student population, ease of access with an international port of entry, a variety of provided qualifications, student populations, and the received amount of interest from potential participants via the online survey.