Abstract
Research in the field of tourism has not been very important until the early nineteen seventies; it has begun to spread only since that time. Marketing research is a broad concept including various techniques, but a main distinction should be done between quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative techniques describe variables by assigning a number – representing an attitude, opinion or motivation- which can be statistically analyzed. In contrast, qualitative research focuses on attitudes, opinions and motivations in the words of each respondent, but without quantifying it. Quantitative methods have always dominated in tourism, as it often appears as more reliable, since it is based on facts that can be observed, and then analysed. However, qualitative techniques have become to be more and more used for the last decade. Each technique has obviously specific advantages and drawbacks; that is why it is necessary to examine both in different contexts, especially in tourism research. As Alf H. Walle reported in his report called “Quantitative versus Qualitative Research in Tourism”, “plurality of equally valid research strategies exist within tourism. Choice must be thus determined according to the situation in which the research takes place.”
