Festivals And The Promotion Of Tourism – Research Proposal Research Proposal Example

Introduction

This proposal presents important elements for the completion of a major dissertation in the field of tourism and its related socio-economic elements and aspects. It will provide a background to the research issue being studied and relevant academic questions and research objectives that come with it.

Background

Festivals have several components that are connected to the promotion of tourism. First of all tourism extends the tourism season for a given period or community. Secondly, festivals facilitate relationships between tourists and members of a given community and this gives impetus for more tourism activities in the future. Festivals add up to the process of destination promotion, because the destination within which a given festival occurs remains conspicuous to participants throughout the period. This is because it is impossible to promote a given event without mentioning the place within which it is being held. Therefore, it is inherent and obvious that festivals, like all events, will promote the location within which it is held.

Problem Statement

The United Arab Emirates has embarked on a systematic path towards the modernization of its economy and social systems. One of the main elements of achieving the modernization of the country is through the institutionalization of tourism activities and the development of the country as a major attractive tourist destination for visitors from all over the world.
Dubai and the other Emirates of the UAE have therefore put in a lot of efforts to develop events and festivals that will attract people from different parts of the world. Obviously, these events and festivals boost the long-term and short-term status of the UAE as an ideal tourism destination.
This study will therefore concern itself with an attempt to identify the impact of festivals on tourism in the United Arab Emirates. It will answer fundamental questions including the impact of these festivals on the number of tourists who visit the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. How many tourists come to these emirates during festivals? How do the numbers of tourists differ from times where there are no festivals? Do these tourists spend more during festivals? What explains the trends in their purchasing activities? Finally, there is the question of the extent of the experience tourists get during festivals. Are the experiences of tourists in the UAE more intense during festivals? If they are, what is the reason behind that?

Research Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to critically examine the relationship between festivals and tourism in the United Arab Emirates. In order to attain this end, the following objectives will be explored:
A critical evaluation of the volume of tourists who visit the UAE during the main festivals of the largest emirates over the past five years;
An assessment of the economic contributions made by tourists who visit the main festivals of the largest emirates over the past five years;

An analysis of the intensity of tourist experiences during the main festivals of the largest emirates over the past year.

A review of the experiences of members of the Emirati community during the tourist boom at festival times.
Significance of Study
The main reason for conducting this study is to examine the main elements of festivals and how they boost tourism in the UAE. When the fundamental boosters of tourism during festivals are identified, they can be enhanced and improved in order to enhance tourism and touristic experiences in the UAE. Therefore, the research will deduce conclusions that can be applicable to the process of promoting and enhancing tourism in the UAE and its future.
This research is in partial fulfillment of my degree. After conducting studies and appreciating elements of knowledge through the taught course, this research gives me the opportunity to demonstrate my ability to apply theories and concepts to real issues. Therefore, this study enables me to use ideas of the art and science of tourism and social research to accomplish a specific task. This will enable me to build the competence of research and how to apply research methods to real-life problems and situations in order to achieve better results and appropriate processes.

Literature Review

There are a number of things that are not clear about the way festivals actually influences tourism. This can only be confirmed through a thorough and a critical review of literature in order to define the actual pattern and trend through which the two variables – tourism and festivals interact and what the exact relationship is.
In the logical sense though, the biggest measure of tourism is to view the volume of travelers who visit traditional sites of tourist interest in a given geographical area over a specific period of time.
A second measure of tourism in a given period of time is through the measure of the economic benefit gained through touristic activities over the period in question.
A third variable which is somewhat distinct is the measure of consumer value from a given touristic offer in a given place over a period of time. This is somewhat difficult to quantify, however, it refers to the extent to which a visitor or tourist enjoys the facilities and experience of a given destination.
Festivals are generally meant to be complicated and difficult to be evaluated because a festival is carried out through a series of events and activities. These are often isolated and it comes with complications that cannot be easily evaluated or analyzed independently. Hence, there is the need to set up different features of measuring the events and activities that came up with each of the activities of the festival and from there, their impacts can be aggregated and a unified pointer can be presented for analysis. This is important because there are major trends that can be attributed directly to a given branch or unit of a given approach or element of a festival. Therefore, the review and analysis of tourism and its trends that is attributable to such activities and events is important and must be carried out in studies in which there is a comparison of different elements and aspects of festivals and tourism.
Another approach is to examine the attitudes of the local community in relation to the new tourists and the new processes of tourism when festivals are carried out. The implication is that there is an internal evaluation and analysis of the extent to which tourism is carried out and how it is influenced by the role played by external stakeholders and its impacts on the consumers and the entire markets and procedures. Therefore, there is a general trend towards the examination of the internal impact of tourists in high-peak seasons and processes where there are many movements and arrival of new people in a given society and community.

Research Design

In order to complete the research as per the objectives and aims, there will be the need to define the variables of the study. In this study, the independent variable is the festivals in the UAE. And this will include the many festivals that are organized in the Emirates and how they are impacting on the society. The dependent variable for the research is the trends in tourism and how they change over the period of time. This is a variable that changes over different time frames. Hence, they will be examined in relation to how they change during festivals and how this affects the community in the absolute and relativist sense. There will be four main steps that the research will go through. They include the following:
Step 1: An assessment of the volume of tourists to and from the UAE during periods where a major festival season is identified. This will include the examination of a major festival period in the UAE and an assessment of the volumes of tourism in this period and how tourism rises from other levels in other times of the year.
Step 2: An evaluation of the economic contributions made by the tourists in festive periods and the variations with other times of the year. This will be done through the explanation of the trends in the injection of money into the Emirati economy during and festive periods. This will show how the contributions of festive-oriented tourism differ from other periods.
Step 3: An analysis of the qualitative experiences of tourists during the main festivals and how this differs from other times of the year. This will show the means and the level at which people carry out their activities and processes during festive periods and what makes their experiences different and unique.
Step 4: Assessment of the impact of tourist activities on stakeholders in festive periods and how the community experiences tourism activities and processes during festivals and other related activities.

Research Methodology

The research steps will be applied through the examination and the review of data that will be gathered through a fieldwork. This will include the gathering of data in order to critique them and provide important conclusions.

Data Collection

In order to complete this study, there will be the collection of data from the months where the highest numbers of festivals occur in the UAE. This includes the period whereby there are most festivals and similar events in the country. This will be marked as the festive period and the complete list of events and festivals in these periods will be critiqued and evaluated. This will be a period of 1 month where the highest numbers of festivals occur in the Emirates.
Data will be collected from three main sources of information. The first source of information will be taken from the tourism authorities of the UAE. This will include charts and volumes of tourists and their spending in the UAE. This will guide the evaluation of the quantitative elements of the number of tourists who visit in different times and it will also assist in the evaluation of the economic injections made by tourists in the UAE.
The second source of data will be the open ended interview of members of the community about their experiences and processes of the festive period and how they think the festivals contribute to the tourism industry of the UAE. This will include questions that will be presented in these open ended interviews and it will cover objectives 4 of the study. This includes the evaluation of the experiences and impact of festivals on tourism.
The third source of information will be gathered through a survey of respondents who have toured the UAE during festival periods and non-festival periods. Their responses will form the bases for the formulation of conclusions about tourist experiences during the UAE’s festivals.

Sampling

The sample for the first source of information will include relevant tourist statistics that includes the number of visitors, the amount of money spent and the number of people who visited strategic installation. The cut-off period will range from the year 2009 and 2014. This will be taken from the Emirates’ authorities for tourism.
The second source of information will be taken from a sample of 5 authorities who represent various stakeholders in the Emirati tourism industry. The sample will be taken from a systematic selection of respondents who represent the different sectors and different interest groups who are represented in the country’s tourist groups and activities.
The third source of information will be taken from a random sample of 50 tourists who have been to the United Arab Emirates on at least 2 occasions – one of them, being a festive period. These respondents will be asked questions relating to the intensity of their experiences in the UAE in the festive period and out of the festive periods.

Data Analysis

The findings of each of the four steps of the research will be subjected to critical review and analysis of information. The information of the first step, which includes the volume of tourists who visited the UAE will be presented in a visual format where the major trends and processes in tourism can be deduced and presented for clear review. This will include the use of charts in order to show the volume of tourist movement in the period in which most festivals occur and the periods in which there are fewer festivals. The trends will indicate important features and this will be used to establish an empirical relationship between festive periods and tourism volume changes.
The second step of the study will be done through the presentation of the economic injections in the Emirati economy and how it fluctuates through periods where there are high-peak festive activities and periods where there are little or no festive activities. This will also be presented in a visual form whereby graphs will be used to depict the changes in trends.
In the third step, the open-ended questionnaire responses will be summarized and presented in the form of aggregated information. This will inform readers of the main trends and commonalities that were established in the study. The result of this is that there will the presentation of major findings and the gaps in these findings will be discussed.
The final step’s survey responses from closed-ended questionnaires will be presented statistically and this will include major charts with comparative features. This includes bar charts and other elements and features that can be used to aid comparison of information and data. This will show how people view the impact of tourism in festive period in relation to other periods in the UAE. This will help to gauge the differences in these periods and how they are perceived by the different people who visit the country in different times in the year.

Plan of Action

The research will be conducted over a period of 8 weeks. Within the period, there research is expected to be transformed from this proposal to an actual deliverable, which is the final and approved dissertation. The period will be marked by major activities including the formulation and proper creation of a research strategy and the gathering of data, interpretation of the data and the draft of the final report or activity. In order to achieve this, work is divided up to 8 activities:

Finalization of proposal

Creation of research format (Completion of Chapter 1)
Preliminary contact with respondents
Conduct of Literature Review
Conduct of Fieldwork
Compilation of findings
Presentation of Draft
Presentation of Final Dissertation
The first step will be to finalize and authorize the entire proposal. This includes the presentation of the elements of this proposal to the authorities for approval. And once this is done, the proposal will have to be converted to the first chapter of the research and this will include a practical element of the research and its related activities.
The next step will be to contact respondents and potential respondents. This will lay the foundation for the conduct of the actual fieldwork and help to outline the main scope and essence of the field work. However, in this period, the literature review will be conducted. As information is acquired, there will be the drawing up of the field work and this will be used to formulate the standard for the presentation of the actual fieldwork.
The fieldwork will also be completed and this will lead to the presentation of the data which will be analyzed and findings will be created. Once findings are created, there will be the compilation of findings which will culminate in the first draft of the dissertation. This will be followed by the presentation of the final dissertation that will be presented for approval.
Work Breakdown

Bibliography

Chen, X., & Sun, Y. M. (2014). International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Management Science-2013. New York: DesTech Publication Inc.
Dwyer, L., & Wickens, E. (2010). Event Tourism and Cultural Tourism: Issues and Debates. London: Routledge.
Graham, A., Papatheodorou, A., & Forsyth, P. (2010). Aviation and Tourism: Implications for Leisure Travel. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.
Mak, J. (2014). Tourism and the Economy: Understanding the Economics of Tourism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Page, S., & Connell, J. (2013). Tourism: A Modern Synthesis. Mason, OH: Cengage.
Picard, D., & Robinson, M. (2014). Festivals, Tourism and Social Change. New York: Channel View Publishing.
Woodside, A. G., & Martin, D. (2012). Tourism Management: Analysis, Behaviour, and Strategy. New York: CABI.