How Do Destinations Use Food In Destination Marketing To Enhance Destination Competitiveness: A Case Study Of Denmark

Methodology3.1 Research Philosophy

The study will follow the inductive method and have an explanatory purpose as well. The causal or explanatory research emphasizes situation analysis with the aim of rationalizing and recognizing the cause-and-effect correlation between different variables (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2009). The philosophy of this research will entail building a bridge between Denmark’s cuisine tourism psychology and the field of the tourism industry. The core objective and goal of this research will be to use psychological methods and principles with the aim of understanding how best food can be used to market the Denmark destination to encourage cuisine tourism in the country.  Similarly, it looks critical to incorporate a scientific focus, use practical needs, grounding studies and use real-world cuisine samples to improve destination Denmark. Indeed, understanding this was fundamentally very important in building a destination in Denmark in the context of food tourism.

3.2 Research Approach

The researcher will adopt qualitative research by permitting a detailed exploration of the complex issues related to Denmark’s destination branding. Consequently, this research dissertation will use the inductive research approach to satisfy the objectives of the study as said above. Researchers always use specific observations concerning this kind of research approach. The observation was used to generalize the theories of the research and to draw some conclusions with regard to this research (Ledford & Gast, 2018). The main reason why the inductive research approach will be used in this study is that the inductive research approach is more appropriate for small samples and takes into account the context where the research study effort is active. Nonetheless, the inductive research approach also has one main limitation: it leads to more generalized conclusions and theories that only rely on a small sequence of observations, thus resulting in less reliability of the research (Vaioleti, 2016).

3.3 Strategy Used (Questionnaire, Semi-Structured Interviews)

Purposeful discussions, or semi-structured interviews, will be conducted by the researcher with the sample, who are vital audiences and stakeholders of the tourism industry in Denmark, preferably face-to-face, to get the most detailed responses, nevertheless, if not possible, over the phone or via Skype. Those who are chosen will be purposely selected due to their position in their organizations and the Danish tourism industry, which would enhance the reliability of the research. For this, there would be semi-structured interviews with executives from 2-5 hotels, 2-5 restaurants, and 1-2 DMOs regarding strategies and opinions. Questionnaires will also be administered by the researcher to traveling consumers in Denmark, with the sample size of the tourists being 20-30 respondents. Having a smaller sample instead is deemed more appropriate in this case as it concerns the particular context where the behaviors take place and does not aim to generalize. The design selected is qualitative and, therefore, will not require a significant amount of statistical analysis but would offer a holistic description of the whole case in context (Bryman & Bell, 2009).

The study that will be conducted will aim to answer the questions of this dissertation. Several kinds of literature will also be found available with regard to ways through which Denmark destinations use food in destination marketing to enhance destination competitiveness. Other data that will be found available include various Danish touristic destinations and the rest tourist destinations of the world. Due to that, the research will take a strategy of new research though based on an existing research study topic or subject.

3.4 Data Used (Primary + Secondary)

The research data used for this study will be triangulated. The kind of data that was used in this research was primary data collected from the in-depth and unstructured questionnaires. In this regard, this kind of data was compiled by the researcher himself by conducting qualitative interviews with the research respondents.  The spatial characteristics of the data collected were that they contain statistical information about the use of food to market destination Denmark while the temporal component of the data collected was that the value of data collected was concerning time. The primary source of error of the research anticipated came from the respondents who were not willing to talk about their organizations, leading issuance of sufficient information.

3.5 Methods And Techniques (How Data Was Collected)

Initially, data provided by the respondents will be documented and reproduced in the form of a written transcript with preliminary jotted notes to preserve a good record of the discussions throughout the meeting. The collected data will then be investigated further through coding (open and axial) and categorization (Bryman and Bell, 2009). Some data will be analyzed from previous applicable research and linked with models and theoretical frameworks of experiential tourism, destination branding and marketing, and destination choice. Other sources of information, including official reports and publicity materials, will be utilized, as well as a close examination of official regional tourism websites in Denmark (i.e., VisitDenmark, Denmark.dk, VisitCopenhagen, VisitAarhus) to evaluate their branding efforts and strategies. The researcher will also be physically visiting some of the chosen stakeholders in the country (i.e., the hotels and restaurants) to generate observations and, if possible, to conduct face-to-face interviews.

The qualitative research technique will be used in this study to satisfy the objectives of this dissertation.  The main reason why a qualitative research technique will be used for this dissertation is that the qualitative research technique is usually appropriate for small research samples, and similarly, its outcomes are not quantifiable and measurable, as will be seen in Table 3.1. A qualitative research technique provides an ultimate analysis and description of the research topic/subject, and that is one of its fundamental advantages, as well as its significant difference from the quantitative research technique (Ledford & Gast, 2018). In this regard, the qualitative research technique provides an ultimate analysis and description of the research topic without having to limit the nature of the research sample and the scope of the research as well. However, it is crucial also to agree that the effectiveness of a qualitative research technique greatly relies on the researcher’s abilities and skills. Therefore, it makes even the outcome of a qualitative research technique tack reliability because most of the findings will come from the researcher’s interpretation and judgments (Vaioleti, 2016).  So, a qualitative research technique is also risky for most of its outcomes to be taken as appropriately reflecting the opinions of the more extensive research participants since it involves small samples (Vaioleti, 2016).

3.6 Validity

The validity of research always entails the whole idea behind the research as well as vestigating if the findings obtained from the research achieve all the expectations of the scientific approach used in the study (Moskal, & Leydens, 2000). In this regard, this scientific research will randomize sample groups as well as appreciate diligence and care, as will be shown in the allocation controls of this research. The internal validity of this research will dictate ways through which the experiment design will be structured in this research as well as entailing the stages through which this scientific research will be conducted.

In fact, if this care is not given a lot of attention, then regardless of these findings being sloppy, inconsistent design or great, they will still compromise the integrity of this research. So, the internal validity of this research will be given a lot of attention for this experimental design. According to Moskal and Leydens (2000), external validity is the process of questioning and exploring the findings to determine if they have causal correlations. Therefore, using randomization and control groups in this scientific research will help reduce validity issues that might occur with this research to make it successful. Moreover, this will result in statistical proofs with regard to the hypothesis of this research leading to absolute truth (Moskal, & Leydens, 2000). The majority of the scientific research designs emphasize the possible causes for the research effect, and this always provides a chance for some unknown factors to the research findings and results. Therefore, the causal correlations may be obvious in case the research approach gets honed and refined.

3.7 Reliability

The concept of reliability outlines that all the substantial findings of research must always be inherently repeatable as well as being more than a one-off result (Moskal, & Leydens, 2000). In this regard, the concept of reliability emphasizes that for research to be reliable, then, similar research variables must produce similar findings and results when studied by other different researchers. Therefore, reliability confirms research results as well as ensuring that the broader research community accepts the hypothesis of the research (Moskal, & Leydens, 2000). So, failure of this research to statistically replicate its findings will make the research or the experiment to as well fail to fulfill its testability requirements. A prerequisite like this is very important as it establishes the accepted scientific reality.

The researcher of this study will, therefore, use certain kinds of stopwatches to make this research reliable. Such research instruments are always assumed to be reliable, and using them will keep the true and accurate time of this research. So the research of this study will have to remain diligent so as to take measurements severally in order to reduce malfunction of the research, thus leading to maintenance of reliability (Moskal, & Leydens, 2000). The reliability of any scientific research that uses human judgments is always compromised because human judgments vary broadly between similar individuals and observers with regard to current mood and day. In case this happens, the research will be very difficult to repeat thus making it less reliable. Therefore, the researcher will try to maintain the reliability of this research because the reliability of scientific research will apparently improve the strengths of the findings of this research. Indeed Moskal, & Leydens (2000) emphasize that the reliability of research is always ongoing, robust and necessary.

3.8 Ethical Considerations

The research will be subjected to some ethical considerations that are believed will help the researcher achieve some degree of morality in my research. As stated earlier, all the research respondents will be given the opportunity to accept that they want to participate in the interviews by making them append their signatures to the consent form provided to them before they officially begin taking the questions. Also, the researcher will ask the sample members to append their signatures to the Withdrawal and Debriefing Letter. In fact, the withdrawal and debriefing Letter will aim at reassuring the research participants that they were voluntarily participating in the research without being forced and that they could also withdraw from participating in the research as they wish. Moreover, apart from seeking the research participants’ consent, the respondents will also be informed about the objectives, the nature and the scope of the research to ensure they have a clear understanding of the topic/subject being investigated in the research. The researcher will also be reassured by research participants that the answers they provide during the interview will be treated with full confidentiality, which they deserve and only use for the intended academic purposes as well as only for the study.  None of my research participants will be psychologically or physically abused or harmed during the research as the researcher will only concentrate on maintaining and creating a conducive environment that will allow the respondents to provide the most precise answers.

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