**3. Research methodology**

This study adopted the pragmatic research philosophy. This philosophy is a position that contends that the research question is the most important determinant of the research philosophy adopted for the study [71]. A mixed research methodology was used. Literature shows that the use of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies separately would not yield the best results for this study. Mixing quantitative and qualitative approaches is increasingly popular in DI research, although it appears that there is insufficient theoretical rationale for doing so [72]. However, [73] highlighted that the mixed methodology adds value in terms of increasing confidence in the research findings.

*Development of a Destination Image Recovery Model for Enhancing the Performance… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93854*

#### **3.1 Research design**

The research design was more of quantitative than qualitative. The large amounts of quantitative data came from the tourists who far outnumbered the service providers and key informants who together provided mostly qualitative data. Research designs can be classified into three broad categories, namely quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs [74]. Creswell [74] describes this design as concurrent procedures, in which the researcher converges quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the research problem. This view is corroborated by [75] who highlighted that the purpose of doing this is to best understand or develop a more complete understanding of the research problem by obtaining different but complementary data. Both forms of data are collected simultaneously and the information is integrated in the interpretation of the overall results. Data analysis is kept independent and there is need to look for convergence, divergence, contradictions, or relationships of the two sources of data [76]. The convergent parallel mixed methods design supported the research requirements. It was the most appropriate research design in that allows for the collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data separately [76]. This was consistent with what the research sought, that is, to collect qualitative data from service providers in the tourism sector and quantitative data from tourists. These two groups were mutually exclusive thus facilitating the independent collection and analysis of data. This would be followed by a comparison of the results to see if the results confirmed or disconfirmed each other. The result would be used to develop a DI recovery model which enhances and improves tourism performance in Zimbabwe.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from international tourists and a semi-structured one was applied on the service providers. For both tourists and service providers, the closed questions included a Five-point Likert scale: (For tourists) 5-Very Good, 4-Good, 3-Unsure, 2-Poor and 1-Very Poor and another one, 5-Very Important, 4-Important, 3-Unsure, 2-Somewhat Important and 1-Not Important. For service providers: 5-Strongly Agree, 4-Agree, 3-Neutral, 2-Disagree and 1-Strongly Disagree. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on key informants. Semi-structured interview is a term that typically refers to a context in which the interviewer has a series of questions that are in the general form of an interview guide but is able to vary the sequence of the questions [77]. This type of interview is used to find out what is happening, it seeks new insights, identifies general patterns and helps to understand the relationship between variables [78]. It uses a combination of open and close-ended questions and hence it is consistent with the mixed methodology research design. Data was collected from 240 international tourists, 62 service providers and 17 key informants. **Figure 4** shows how the study was conducted. Price, amenities, accessibility and ancillary services are some of the determinants of cognitive image.

#### **3.2 Data analysis**

Descriptive analysis was applied on demographic data and on interval-scaled (Likert scale) data. Frequency table analysis and proportion percentage analysis was used to transform raw data into a form that would facilitate easy understanding and interpretation. Descriptive statistics were thus used to analyze and profile the perceptions (attitudes) and future intentions of the sampled international tourists. Quantitative data which was obtained from the tourists and some from service providers was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and AMOS version 25. The study used inferential statistics in order to analyze the

**2.8 Conceptual framework**

*Conceptual framework. Source: Author's compilation (2018).*

**Figure 3.**

*Tourism*

**108**

**3. Research methodology**

increasing confidence in the research findings.

The conceptual framework depicts the study hypotheses, that the components of the cognitive image, in this case price, amenities, accessibility and ancillary services impact both affective image and destination performance (**Figure 3**). Affective image which derives from the potential tourists' feelings towards the destination contributes to the improvement in overall destination image especially after visiting the destination [70]. This will ultimately result in; enhancing the performance of the tourism sector (destination performance) as the tourists spend money in the destination.

This study adopted the pragmatic research philosophy. This philosophy is a position that contends that the research question is the most important determinant of the research philosophy adopted for the study [71]. A mixed research methodology was used. Literature shows that the use of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies separately would not yield the best results for this study. Mixing quantitative and qualitative approaches is increasingly popular in DI research, although it appears that there is insufficient theoretical rationale for doing so [72]. However, [73] highlighted that the mixed methodology adds value in terms of

popularity (Word frequencies) including Word query were used to analyze data. Thematic analysis was used because it allows for the classification into themes of various and divergent views from the respondents and it is a flexible research technique which is not tied to a specific philosophical orientation [77]. This approach was therefore quite consistent with the pragmatism research philosophy which informed this study. Results which emerged from the qualitative analysis were compared and contrasted with those which were obtained from quantitative

*Development of a Destination Image Recovery Model for Enhancing the Performance…*

Respecting the respondent's rights, needs, values and desires is emphasized when collecting research data (Creswell, 2014). Research which includes human input should ensure that they are well informed and consent sought from relevant authorities. Permission was sought from international tourists, service providers and key informants to carry out research. Various organizations which included the ZTA, CAAZ, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry issued letters to the researcher granting him permission to conduct the research at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. Research assistants were trained to ensure that they

behaved ethically as they went about administering research instruments.

Response rate refers to the total number of responses divided by the total number in the sample after ineligible respondents have been excluded [78]. A total of 397 respondents comprising 293 international tourists, 90 service providers and 17 key informants was targeted. However, the actual tally was 319 giving a response rate of 80% which was quite commendable [78]. This total of respondents consisted of 240 international tourists, 62 tourism and hospitality service providers and 17 key

In a study sample of 319, fifty three percent were males while forty-seven were females. The slight dominance of males could be due to the fact that men traveled more for tourism than their female counterparts and feel more motivated to meet their need for sport and adventure experiences than females [80]. The [80] further noted that there were more men than women in the business world and a lot of

**Narration Targeted respondents Actual respondents Response percentage rate**

International tourists 293 240 82 Service providers 90 62 69 Key informants 17 17 100 Total 400 319 80

analysis.

**3.3 Ethical considerations**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93854*

**4. Results and discussion**

**4.1 Response rate**

informants (**Table 1**).

*Source: Field Survey (2018).*

**Table 1.** *Response rate.*

**111**

**4.2 Demographic characteristics of respondents**

#### **Figure 4.**

*Research design adopted in the study. Source: Author's compilation (2018).*

multiple independent variables. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the multiple independent variables which included accessibility, amenities ancillary services and prices as well as dependent variables such as affective image and performance. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) and Bartlett's test were used to test data for validity. Cronbach's Alpha was used to test for data reliability. Overall, the Alpha value was 0.7 and above. SEM is one of the most often used statistical techniques used by researchers to test complex models which involve a number of dependent and independent variables [79]. Similar studies have used SEM [35, 46, 53]. Multivariate analysis was used to test hypotheses because it is optimal for analyzing multiple relationships [75]. Factor analysis was applied on the thirty eight destination image attributes which tourists rated on a Likert scale. These destination attributes were classified into constructs which included price, accessibility, amenities, ancillary services, affective image and performance. This was done in order to facilitate data analysis. Quantitative data was presented using tables and graphs.

Documentary analysis was adopted to establish the trends which were emerging from international aircraft and passenger movements provided by CAAZ from 2016 and 2018 and the international arrivals provided by ZTA during the same period. Data was first captured on a template before it was cleaned (edited). Qualitative data from key informants and service providers was analyzed using NVivo version 12, thematic coding. The goal was to identify, analyze and describe patterns, or themes, across a data set [77]. Word cloud, Word tree, Hierarchical charts, Word

*Development of a Destination Image Recovery Model for Enhancing the Performance… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93854*

popularity (Word frequencies) including Word query were used to analyze data. Thematic analysis was used because it allows for the classification into themes of various and divergent views from the respondents and it is a flexible research technique which is not tied to a specific philosophical orientation [77]. This approach was therefore quite consistent with the pragmatism research philosophy which informed this study. Results which emerged from the qualitative analysis were compared and contrasted with those which were obtained from quantitative analysis.
