Hybrid Analysis in Tourism Research

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms that drive a particular method can lead to increased utility as well as methodological improvements. Researchers must be particularly diligent when applying multiple methods and should be able to carefully articulate how the approaches complement each other. This paper examines a quantitative and qualitative hybrid methodology that can be used to examine tourism advertising images. Two main research approaches have been commonly used to study tourism images: content analysis and semiotic analysis. The purpose of this paper is to detail how these methodologies can be used in combination to provide a more thorough analysis than either method can offer alone. The paper concludes by detailing specific considerations when applying this mixed method to the analysis of tourism advertising images.