Sampling and surveying

1. SAMPLING & SURVEYING
TECHNIQUES
Random, Stratified, Systematic Sampling Methods
Survey Considerations

2. What is a sample and sampling?
• A sample is a portion of the country’s population chosen
to represent specific information or data.
• Sampling is the process by which the sample size is
selected.
• The sampling method depends on what the researcher
wants to find out.

3. State a suitable hypothesis for his
fieldwork. What is his sample size?
I am going to find out how
many people living in Toa Payoh
like to visit the library on
weekends and the ages of the
people who visit the library.
My teacher said I need to get 50
surveys done. There should be
quite a lot of people in Toa
Payoh this Sunday. I think
there should be at least 500
people.

4. Sampling Methods
• There are three sampling methods which are commonly used.
• 1. Random
• - any person is selected by random; not based on any criteria.
• - similar to drawing numbers out from a box.
• - computers can be used to create random number lists; e.g. interview every 1st,
5th, 6th, 30th tourist who enters/exits the attraction.
• 2. Systematic
- choosing the nth person that leaves the attraction where n is the regular number.
- choosing the person who leaves Universal Studios after every 1 hour.
- e.g. a group can choose to interview every 4th person who exits from Universal
Studios.
• 3. Stratified
• - people are divided up into different subsets (groups)
• - the group may choose to interview only people of a specific income, age,
gender, dress, physical attributes etc.

5. Benefits of Each Method
• Random Sampling
• - simple to use
• - equal opportunity of being chosen, no bias
• Systematic Sampling
• - more uniform coverage of population compared to random
• - simpler to use (just interview every 4th person, do not need to
constantly check the random numbers)
• Stratified Sampling
• - more precise data when sampling a specific subset/group e.g.
focus only on a specific age group or gender

6. Limitations of Each Method
• Random Sampling
• - time constraints as a large number needs to be surveyed for
accuracy
• - population is not large enough or there are not enough areas
to do random sampling
• Systematic Sampling
• - it is more biased as not all members have an equal chance of
being selected.
• - Repeatable patterns may result – e.g. when interviewing
tourists, every nth person that visits the attraction might be
Japanese as the attraction was strongly promoted on a
Japanese tourist site.
• Stratified Sampling
• - difficult to identify people’s age and social background
• - difficult to maintain complete accuracy of the information
about the subset.

7. Justify reasons for your choice of sampling
What sampling
method should I
use??

8. Considerations before Surveying
When to survey
• Tourism is seasonal. It is important to find out when is the
peak and off-peak season for tourism in the area before
carrying out a survey.
• Special events may create a sudden surge in tourism e.g.
free or discounted tickets into a theme park, new exhibits
in an existing attraction i.e. River Safari / panda exhibit at
Singapore Zoo.
• Tourist attractions have their own schedules e.g. Night
Safari only opens at night.

9. Considerations before Surveying
Where to survey
• Some parts of a tourist attraction may not attract the
target group. e.g. older or elderly may not frequent the
rollercoaster attractions in a theme park.
• Some parts of a tourist attraction may not have many
tourists passing by – e.g. a road junction in Chinatown will
have more tourists passing through compared to a side-
street.
• Unlikely to get enough samples, if you standing at the end
of one way streets or dead-end roads.

10. Considerations before Surveying
How long to survey
• Interviewers may become tired and fatigued if the survey
is carried out for a long time.
• Tourists visit attractions depending on their available time,
schedule or interests. e.g. different groups of tourists may
visit the Singapore Flyer in the day time or night time
depending on which view they are interested in. If the
interviewer only carries out interviews for the day time –
they would not be able to get information from night-time
visitors.