Strategies to Increase the Response Rate of Smartphone-Based Travel Surveys in Afghanistan: Exploring the Effects of Incentives and Female Survey Conductors

Abstract

Smartphone-based travel surveys have been used widely in developed countries as promising alternatives to traditional travel data collection methods. In addition, researchers in developed countries have employed several strategies to increase response rate of the surveys. However, few studies have investigated these issues in developing countries. Therefore, to consider the case of a developing country, we conducted three smartphone-based travel surveys in two Afghanistan cities. The first survey was conducted in 2015 in Kabul. In 2017, we have conducted two additional surveys in Kabul and Khost cities. Two improvements were made to the survey method: offering rewards to increase response rate and appointing female survey conductors to target female participants. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the effect of rewards on the response rate. (2) to demonstrate female survey conductor’s effects on female response rate. (3) to compare response rates of Khost and Kabul surveys. The results reveal that the overall survey response rate in Kabul increases significantly after the improvements are made to the survey method. Rewards have shown to increase male response rate, and female response rate is improved by female survey conductors.