Background to the research problem

International tourism in Australia has been growing faster compared to any other industry sectors present in Australia. In 12 months till the last December had created a record of $41.3 billion and it results around $3.5 billion per month in the foreign currency. This growth is around six percent more compared to the revenue collected in the previous year. Almost all the states excluding Western Australia have been sharing the boom (Abdollahzadeh & Sharifzadeh, 2014). According to International Visitor Survey figure that have been released by the Tourism Minister, Australia is sharing a huge economy received from tourism. The customers who belong to overseas have supported around 10,000 jobs to the countrymen of Australia. Apart from America, Tasmania and other countries some top performers include Hong Kong and India.

The tourism industry, similar to many other economic sectors as well as industries, is impacted by various trends, challenges and issues at local, national and international level. Globally, the industry of tourism is criticized for the ability to identify proactively, response as well as prepare for the issues which have their impacts directly or indirectly on this specific sector (Adiyia, Stoffelen & Jennes, 2015). Australia has been facing various issues in its tourism industry, these issues are mentioned below

• Digital Tourism marketing:even after 30 years of the invention of World Wide Web, all the tourism businesses situated in Australia does not have a specific mobile website, as a result tourists are unable to book in real time. The technology of online booking is quite cheap and easy to use, but not all the companies follow it, this continues the existence of tourism and travel businesses. These businesses usually have a website that is out of data; along with these there are still businesses that do not have any website. According to various researches, the recent data shows that 10% of the businesses that operate tourism do not have a particular website and rarely a business operates real time booking (Alegria, 2014). A huge number of research represent that staying ahead or along with the technology is compared as the biggest hurdle faced by the tourism business
• Embracing the content marketing:usually business has a wrong conception regarding marketing, they think it is not their job but they do not realize that marketing is the key to successful implementation of their business strategies. It is pointless to keep on increasing their services if people do not come to know regarding it. Since the Google’s upgrade of Hummingbird, the search ranking of a tourism company depends on the relevance as well as quality of their content (Ampuero, Miranda & Delgado, 2015). Organizations should start posting videos, blogs, comments, texts and images on what people should look for in their local area or what is the center of attraction in that specific place.
• Understanding the tourists:one of the most important concepts that should be known by tourism companies is to know the tourists visiting their place. The domestic study reveals that re-connection is considered as the heart of the domestic tourism (Astuti, Permana & Qomarun, 2017). Usually tourism companies ignore the tourists who are international and they prefer the local people who arrive to places for short vacations, this is because people belonging to same country are easy to communicate with but tourists that are international are very tough to communicate and convince. This creates a barrier between the tourism companies and tourists.
• Tourism, a serious concept:in Australia, around 48% of expenditure made on tourism reaches to regional areas. Tourism also one of the greatest contributors of the economy in Australia. It contributes much more than the healthcare, financial, retail and mining industries. An example of this is, the area of Port Stephens, 3% of the overall GDP has direct relation with tourism (Awang, Afthanorhan & Mohamad, 2015). In the neighboring mid-North Coast it results up to almost 9%. Local councils do not usually take tourism as a serious topic or concept in the terms of infrastructure, zoning decisions and planning. The business of tourism needs to work together in order to build a specific destination.

The research design selected for this research proposal is to conduct a focus group discussion. This discussion usually consists of various stakeholders and they would be asked questions related to the issues, they would be asked to present their opinions and recommendations, these responses would be recorded and hence an analysis will be carried out in order to receive an overall result (Zhao & Timothy, 2017). The research design that is recommended for this research proposal is as follows

1. Characteristics of focus group interviews

• Participants:they are carefully selected, not more than 10 people would be selected for the discussion (Butler, Khoo-Lattimore & Mura, 2014). People belonging to similar category would be selected.
• Environment:environment should be comfortable, circle sitting should be followed. Responses would be recorded in tape.
• Moderator:moderator should be skills in discussions, must use pre determined questions. Must establish a permissive environment.
• Analysis and reporting:systematic analysis would be carried out, verifiable procedures would be followed, and appropriate reporting would be carried out.

1. Moderator skills:

• Selection of right moderator
• Usage of assistance moderator
• Moderator must be mentally prepared
• Usage of purposeful small talk
• Smooth as well as snappy introduction
• Usage of probes and pauses
• Recording the discussion
• Usage of subtle group control
• Using appropriate conclusion

1. First steps with the focus group

• Deciding whether groups are appropriate
• Decide the participants
• Listening to target audience
• Write down the thoughts

Data collection strategy and distribution

Data collection strategy can be of various ways; here two ways can be used in order to collect the data. First, assistant moderator can note down the responses provided by various participants based on their sitting arrangement (Cheshire & Hay, 2017). Remembering names of everyone might not be possible but if the assistant lists down their responses according to the positions where they are seated, it would be easier to understand at the end of the discussion. Secondly, a tape recorder can be utilized in order to record all the responses. The recorder can be switched on when the discussion starts and switched off when the discussion is concluded. This would be very easy to keep a record of every detail of the response. Writing down the responses might cause in missing out some important point or recommendation but recording would help in avoiding the situation.

Qualitative data can be collected through various means. This data collection method involves direct interaction with people on the basis of one to one talk or interaction with people in a group (Corral, Hernández & Navarro, 2016). Qualitative data collection is a very time consuming process, as a result data s usually collected from small samples than the case of quantitative approaches. The methods to collect qualitative Data is as follows

• Individual interview:in this process people are interviewed individually. Various interview questions are decided, these questions are asked to every individual and their answers or feedbacks are recorded (Datta & Banerji,  2015). The final responses are analyzed and a report is published which gives an overview of the entire response recorded. This type of data collection method is widely used, they are semi structured, that means the questions that are to be asked and the issues that would be addressed are fluid in nature and automatically take the shape when the interview is unfolded. Each interview might last till 50-90 minutes. This method is used when the topic of research is very complex, sensitive and when the study requires a very detailed data. This process helps in yielding new insights and right data, it allows face to face interaction, and it can also capture cognitive as well as affective aspects (Fan & Shahani, 2016). This method of data collection provides the interviewer an opportunity to explain or clarify the topic or question for better responses.
• Focus Group discussions:this is also a commonly used qualitative data collection method. In this method a particular interviewer interacts with a group of individuals regarding their opinions, beliefs, perceptions and attitudes towards a specific concept, idea, products, services and many more. The participants appear in a group who are similar to some extent like education, income or occupation. This makes the participants to feel comfortable and share their thoughts and ideas with each other (Gregori, Daniele & Altinay, 2014). This kind of data collection method is useful while identifying as well as defining problems, pre testing various topics in order to sharpen the research questions, interpret various quantitative findings, learning about people’s opinions on impacts and project outcomes.
• Observation:observation is usually a method of collecting data in a qualitative method. In this process the data is gathered by observing behavior or some events in the natural setting of people. Observations can be carried out in two ways, convert and overt. In the process of covert observation, no one is informed or provided the knowledge that they are being observed and the observer is completely concealed (Horner & Swarbrooke, 2016). A research carried out for understanding the ceremonies and rituals of Hindu weddings can be done in a covert way, the researcher would conceal himself as a guest in order to observe what is actually happening. In the next method, everyone is provided the knowledge regarding the observation. An entire research on Hindu weddings can be carried out through this process where researcher might make use of a video camera and record their rituals and ceremonies.

Research design

The entire process of conducting an online focus group

Chats that are based on online focus groups include a group of people which come together in a specific work environment named “workspace” for viewing various images, videos or discuss regarding specific topic. They chat regarding their own views, opinions and thoughts. This provides a perfect environment for asking consumers about the reason for which they think in that specific manner (Kobra, Bhuiyan & Zayed, 2018). People are questioned if they would want to purchase a specific service or product that has been proposed and if the individuals deny in purchasing them, they are asked regarding the changes that should be brought about in the product or service. These are the types of interaction that is carried out between clients and customers and this interaction should be done on regular basis with target markets.

This sort of focus groups provide a specific level of personal anonymity, participants are engaged to a great extent by receiving feedback regarding how much they liked the experience. This process makes moderation of a group very easy and makes it evident while chat based online focus groups are enjoyed by the participants and there also a level of anonymity. Online focus groups can be carried out through various processes including webcam and audio based online focus groups, this type of focus groups are carried out during advertising research, brand research, website usability testing, website evaluations, product as well as service evaluation, testing various business ideas, business start-up research, consumer groups and many more (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014). One more way by which focus groups can be organized includes planning for real time online focus groups.

A typical focus group includes around 6-12 participants and it is considered the best to perform a minimum of 3 focus group discussions. Talking to various groups provides detailed information regarding any topic. It is difficult to completely explore the topic of discussion. In case a focus group discussion extends more than 90 minutes, it might not provide any result because participants get weary and the discussion might start to waste time of participants (Mukherjee, Huge & Sutherland, 2015). Researchers should be informed and all participants must be asked for their consent before starting this process. Focus groups are generally helpful in various ways, these ways are as follows

• Identifying as well as defining various problems.
• Testing topics as well as ideas in order to make the research questions sharp.
• Strengths, weaknesses as well as recommendations of the program are identified.
• Interprets qualitative findings.
• Learning the thoughts of people on various project impacts and outcomes.
• Generates new ideas and strategies.

In this process the researchers do not aim in making the group reach consensus,  but it aims to explore opinions of various people on a specific topic. As a result the outcomes received from focus group discussions are exploratory and not conclusive (Poudel, Nyaupane & Budruk, 2016). In this sort of interviews, digital recorders are utilized in order to record the information received from the discussion. The record is then transcribed immediately so that the nuances are not lost as time passes by. Strategies and techniques that can be employed to improve participation 

For making a focus group discussion successful, various aspects should be considered by the researchers as well as moderators. The environment in the discussion has to be imperative in order to make the contributors feel comfortable (Sharma & Gursoy, 2015). This would allow every individual to take part into the discussion without any hesitation. Strategies and techniques that should be used in order to improve the participation of people in focus group discussions are as follows

• The questions should be selected carefully by the researchers. This is one of the most important factors because the questions should not be biased in order to sway the answers of participants. The order of questions should also be selected wisely by the researcher (Shek, Yu & Wu, 2015). The questions must be asked in a specific order so that they are building off of each of them. The questions should not be set in such a way that it changes the overall topic of discussion abruptly.
• Participants: participants that take part in the discussion should be chosen wisely. People should belong to similar economic background, similar occupation and if not same but around similar monthly income. This would help them to open up with each other and present their views openly without any hesitation (Stewart & Shamdasani, 2014). If people participating in the discussion belong to different backgrounds on the basis of income or economic background, they would not feel free to share their opinions and thoughts.

Data collection strategy and distribution

Analysis of qualitative data usually involves language. Generally, the output received from qualitative research is received in the form of various words. There are various systems to analyze data, these ways include

• Content analysis:in this analysis, people start with various ideas regarding hypotheses or themes which can emerge and find them in data that have been collected (Stoddart, Catano & Ramos, 2018). Color coding or numbering system can be used in order to identify the texts regarding different themes, gathering evidence regarding views on the themes and grouping various ideas together.
• Grounded analysis:this sort of analysis is similar to the content analysis; in this similar techniques are used for the purpose of coding. In grounded analysis, the analyst does not start from a definite point. Here the data speaks for itself with the emerging themes from various conversations and discussions (Tesca?iu, Epuran & Tec?u, 2018). In real life, this is hard to practice because it needs people to keep aside what they have already read and just concentrate on the collected data.
• Social network analysis:this process of analysis, the links between various individuals is examined as a medium of understanding what motivates behavior of people. This method might to be more useful compared to other methods because it helps in using a visual approach to this sort of analysis for generating a specific network diagram (To & Carless, 2016). This network diagram depicts the relationship between various members in the same network.
• Discourse analysis:this approach analyses conversation, it also takes into account various social contexts where the conversation has occurred. It also includes previous conversations, concept of identity of individual and power relationships (Wu & Pearce, 2014). This process can also include some analysis of various written sources like letters and emails.  
• Narrative analysis:this looks at a way where stories are narrated in an organization or society in order to understand more regarding the way in which individuals think and are organized in various groups.

There are numerous stakeholders in the field of tourism; it is very difficult to know which stakeholder is capable as well as knowledgeable enough to engage into discussions on development in tourism. Various stakeholders differ in their interests an perceptions regarding the problems or chances for the tourism development (Veal, 2017). As a result, it is very important that while the focus group is carried out the stakeholders should set a particular list of objectives, problems and opportunities. Research objectives that is attempted to reach through the questions of focus group are as follows

• Participants must reflect on varied perspectives:the meeting must involve maximum of 10 members who would represent a wide range of interests in terms of sectors. They should also represent their positive as well as negative views. Stakeholders should represent the entire range of organizations and institutions active in destination.
• Identify problems:the stakeholders should be made comfortable so that they are free enough to share the problems through the discussion (Von Bergner & Lohmann, 2014). They should be provided enough freedom that they put forward their thoughts regarding the issue that is being discussed.
• Recommendations:the stakeholders should be advised to provide recommendations on how the issues can be overcome. Stakeholders like local communities and tourists should be requested to provide their suggestions on how they think the overall tourism industry can perform better and provide better service and help in contributing more to the country’s revenue (Wee, Tuyl & Blomjous, 2016). Tourists should be asked to share their problems that they have faced when they first arrived there and local people should be asked for ways how their interaction with various tourists can be increased in order to make them feel comfortable.

In this process of qualitative data collection, thematic analysis is an important concept. It emphasizes, examines, pin points and records patterns within the data. This analysis can be carried our widely. In this research method qualitative data collection method of focus group discussion has been carried out and responses have been recorded (Wepener, 2015). Thematic analysis has been carried out after the responses were recorded from four groups. The themes that were evaluated from the findings include digital tourism, content marketing, knowledge of tourists and quality of services. These identified themes have been found by carrying out detailed research on the issues faced by the tourism of Australia. Focusing on these themes would be helpful for them to improve their tourism business. Local tourism businesses can also follow them in order to improve their business and help tourism industry to contribute more to the revenue of the country.

Content analysis can be defined as a research tool that is used in determining the presence of various concepts or words within a certain set of texts. Researchers analyze as well as quantify the presence, relationships and meanings of these words as well as concepts and then interferences are made regarding the messages in the texts (Woods, Paulus & Atkins, 2016). A content analysis has been done on the themes that have been identified in the thematic analysis. The content analysis on the themes identifies is mentioned below.

Table 1: themes and their findings

(Source: created by author)

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