An Adapted Q-Methodology and its Application in a Tourism Study on Online Destination Image

Abstract

Destination image influences tourist motivation and destination choice which is experiencing challenges in the age of the Internet. User Generated Content on the internet provides alternatives to the projected official image of a destination. This paper presents the research design of an adapted Q-Methodology study to understand the online destination image of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo from the perspective of different generations of potential tourists from China. Q-Methodology is a systematic method to extract participants’ subjective perceptions and is referred to as a bridge between qualitative and quantitative research traditions. Current literature is replete with destination attributes rooted in Western perspectives, but the Asian perspective remains understudied. The Q-Methodology process is explained including the generation of a concourse from two image sources to denote both perceived images and projected images of Sabah to understand the attributes of its online destination image. The concourse consisted of 266 photographs generated from the most popular travelogue website in China www.mafengwo.cn where images are posted and shared by tourists themselves, and also from ‘Signature Attractions’ listed on the Sabah Tourism Board website. Next, the Q-set is derived from the concourse, a P-set is recruited to conduct the Q-sort, a ranking order of the Q-set of 33 images. A purposive sample of 24 participants or P-set will be selected (potential outbound tourists in China) consisting of six persons from four different generations: post-1950s/post-1960s, post-1970s, post-1980s, and post-1990s. Each P-set will conduct a Q-sort of the Q-set (images) to produce the key attributes for Sabah’s online destination image rooted in the perceptions of four different generational groups. As a final step to enhance the credibility of findings, the P-set will participate in a focus group discussion. This paper only delineates the research design for data collection in this study.