This unit outline provides an overview of market research principles and their application within the tourism industry. The unit is divided into principles of market research, covering topics like competitive advantage and understanding consumer behavior, and applications of market research, where students will use case studies to practice the market research process from design to recommendations. Upon completing the unit, students will be able to engage in market monitoring, analyze and interpret research data, and understand the role of market research in tourism marketing and development.

1. Unit Outline: Market Research
This Unit has links to certain other units within the Tourism Programme at a variety
of levels, principally:
• Marketing
• Introduction to Business Management
• Services and Product Management
• Destination Management
• Management Information Systems
The unit is broadly divided into two components:
• Principles of market research
• Practice of market research (particularly within an international Tourism context.)
Principles of Market Research
1. The search for competitive advantage and the role of Marketing and Market
Research therein.
2. The nature of change in the Business Environment and the impacts and
implications thereof for existing and potential consumers producing both
opportunities and threats for Tourism organisations and their products and
services.
3. The critical linkage between market research & consumer profiling and tourism
product/service/experience design, development and delivery.
4. The strategic importance of designing, developing and maintaining an effective
system to monitor consumer market movements and deliver appropriate data,
information, analysis, and evaluation to key staff at the right time to support
organisational learning and organisational strategic and tactical responses.
5. Desk-based (secondary research) and primary research processes. Effective use of
existing and freely available resources. The role and value of using external
consultants / specialists.
6. Interpreting the data: validity, reliability and bias.
7. The role of information technology in gathering customer information and
transforming passive market monitoring into active customer relationship.
8. Movement from narrow views of limited social classes to much broader lifestyle
variables and ultimately: ‘From one mass market … to mass markets of one’
(Pollock, A. 1999)
9. Forecasting from current data sets and trends. Links to scenario planning.
Applications of Market Research
This section of the programme will seek to operationalise the above principles and
practices in the context of real life Tourism cases and specially designed scenarios.
All students will follow the marketing research process through from designing and
developing systems to acquire market research, though presenting data, interpreting,
analysing, evaluating, synthesising and drawing legitimate conclusions and
recommendations for product and service adaptation. Indicative examples to be
drawn upon may include consortia / partnership approaches at the Tourism
Destination level (eg Dorset and New Forest Tourism Partnership); National Tourist
Office International Market profiling etc.

2. Upon completion of the unit, students should be confident enough to:
• engage in developing systems to acquire and monitor critical market change data
• present, interpret, analyse, evaluate, synthesise tourism market research data and
to draw legitimate conclusions and recommendations therefrom in respect of
future marketing, development and service activity.
• identify critical sources of relevant free / low cost data in international, national
regional and local settings.
• Write a specification for a specialist agency / consultancy to successfully
commission market research.
• Understand the logic of the market research process and its critical role.
1. Timetable
All Mondays:
Block One: 25th Jan
Block Two: 1st Feb
Block Three: 8th Feb
Block Four: 22nd Feb