METHODOLOGY

Introduction
This chapter outlines the key variables in this study, the research methods used to obtain the data for this study including a description of the sample framework, the method of data collection, and a brief outline of the research instrument. In addition to this, the response rate and survey time frame are also presented. As seen in Literature review, the author has used the secondary data in order to know more on this particular subject. However in this methodology chapter, the author will make use of primary research in to collect data according to the aims and objectives below. The aim of this study is to investigate the concept of investment among the demographics of Mauritian local residents The objectives of this study are: To explore the perception of Mauritian local residents with relation to investment To investigate the proportion of income Mauritian local residents invest in different avenues. To determine the factors that influence Mauritian local residents decisions behind their investment avenues. To investigate the type of investment avenues that Mauritian local residents favour

3.1 Key Variables

3.1.1 Communication Channel
One key variable of this study is the communication channel. Communication channel is a way of transmitting information to a targeted audience. It may be done through different means for example mass media, flyers, electronic devices and letters. By taking into consideration the study objectives, the author has categorized the study into understanding more of the communication channels used by the concerned stakeholders to pass information. This will help the author to understand the flow of

communication, the effectiveness of the different types of communication channels used and the existing barriers in the communication channels and process.

3.1.2 Stakeholders
Stakeholders are defined as groups of individuals who have a direct or indirect interest into the objectives and the running of the business and objectives (Riley. J et al 2012). For this study, the author has regrouped all the stakeholders which have a vital importance in the Tourism Planning Process. They are mainly the Residents, Tourism Entrepreneurs, Tourism Planners, Ministry of Tourism and Tourism Police.

3.1.3 Tourism planning process

The last key variable of this study is the Tourism planning process. This study will help the author to understand more of the concept of Tourism Planning Process in relation to the environment and social issues in Flic-En-Flac.

Data Collection Process

3.2. Mode of Investigation
There are different types of investigation were used for this study. First the author has conducted a preinterview with the concerned stakeholders in order to know more about the subject. This has allowed the author to have an overview of the subject and of the already existing problems which has shown up during the pre-interview. For this study, the involvement of all the concerned stakeholders in relation to the communication channels used will be evaluated and investigated. The purpose of the survey is to obtain Ordinal Data which will be evaluated. Both primary and secondary research was used for this study.

3.3 Secondary research

It is the collection of data which has been conducted by other researchers. For this study, the author has obtained the secondary data through the internet, articles, journals, magazines, and many others. It was useful to the author as it was quickly available and is not time consuming nor expensive. However, some

of the secondary data were not reliable and was quite outdated as not so many researchers have been done in this field of study.

3.3 Primary research

The author has considered a mixed method consisting of both quantitative and qualitative method was used. This was done through the use of questionnaires and unstructured interviews with the stakeholders involved in the Tourism Planning.

3.3.1 Method to collect Data

The method used to collect data for this study is the quantitative method. The author has chosen to use this method as it is more reliable to obtain the required information. By using this method, a profound understanding of the topic and of the research objectives is met. This method allows the use of quantitative data as well as the qualitative data. In this way, the author will be able to use open ended questions in the questionnaire which will enable the respondents to express their views on the particular questions without any constraints. This can be useful to the author in the sense that more answers will be available to be examined. It is to be noted that the second choice was to use only the Quantitative method through the help of questionnaires. This method was also reliable as in the context of this study; it is able to target a larger audience and is done quickly as compared to the Mixed Method. However, the use of this type of method is being constraint to only some of the stakeholders of this study which are the residents and the Small Tourism entrepreneurs. To overcome this barrier, a Mixed Method was the best choice for data collections for Tourism Police, Tourism Planners, Tourism entrepreneur: Hotels and high class restaurants and the representative of the Ministry of Tourism. Qualitative method was used through the application of unstructured interview as these stakeholders are more knowledgeable on the Tourism Planning Process and its implication concerning communication and stakeholders which is not the case of the residents and the Tourism entrepreneur. The potential uses of qualitative research are that it helps to develop hypotheses concerning relevant details about behaviors and attitudes, help the author on better understanding on how communication are received and understood, help to avoid the use of jargon in questionnaires by identifying language used to address the relevant issues (Peterson, 1994) (Bryman, 2001)

Thus it is to be noted that the design of the questionnaire was done specifically for the residents and the Small Tourism entrepreneur.

3.4 The Design of the Questionnaires

The questionnaire was designed to specifically meet the aims and objectives of this study. questionnaires have been done separately for the Residents and Tourism Entrepreneur. Both of the questionnaires consisted of five sections namely; (1) Questions relating to the investigation of the communication channel between the concerned stakeholders. (2) The evaluation of the effectiveness of the channels of communication utilized in tourism planning. This part is mainly to measure the effectiveness of communication by looking factors such as frequencies, initiation of communication and efficiency. (3) Questions relating to examine the possible planning barriers in the communication process and to analyze any suggestion towards how to overcome these barriers. (4) Demographic data about the respondents (age, sex, income level, etc.). Focus has been put on the communication channels used by the concerned stakeholders, the efficiency of the communication channel and process and the frequencies and initiation of the communications. It is an important means to collect a range of information needed and comes in different structure. However, as the author has chosen to adopt the mixed method, a range of open questions were included to generate a source of more qualitative and explanatory information which can add a richer dimension to prior understanding to the responses. Two

3.5 The Unstructured Interview Design

The author will need to interview the higher hierarchy in the communication process which is mainly the Tourism Police, the tourism planners as well as the Ministry of Tourism and Tourism entrepreneur: Hotels and High class restaurants. The Author has constructed the unstructured interview questions according to the aims and objectives of the study. Thus it is a way to support all other data obtained in the survey and clarify some of the misinterpretation collected. Interviews were conducted in an open-ended and descriptive manner where all the conversations were recorded to permit accurate retention of important information.

3.6 Sampling Size and Technique.

For this study, the respondents will be the stakeholders involved in the tourism planning process. A target population of 100 stakeholders has been selected for the survey as it is seen to be a representative one depending on this study. The target populations for this study are mainly the residents, tourism

entrepreneur, tourism planners, Tourism Police and a representative of the Ministry of Tourism. The sampling technique used was the Quota sampling method. This method was chosen to facilitate the author to target its appropriate population. The population is segmented into mutually exclusive subgroups. Thus quota sampling is easier to organize, more reliable and less time consuming as compared to random sampling.

3.8 Data Analysis

In this section of study, the methods used for calculating the data obtained from the qualitative research methodology and quantitative research methodology will be analyzed and introduced.

3.8.1 Data Analysis for Qualitative research Methodology

The qualitative data obtained for this study will be evaluated and examine by the (Boyatzis, 1998) inductive thematic analysis. This method allows the author to develop code, words, or phrases with the purpose of reducing the raw information by writing outlines of each section of data expressed by the interviewee explicitly or implicitly said. It was further added that the process continues by indentifying themes which come from the data itself (inductive approach) and from the authors prior theoretical understanding of the study (a priori approach). A priori themes comes from the understanding of the study being studied acquired from already agreed on professional definitions found in literature reviews (Ryan, 2008), and from the authors values and theoretical orientations (Bulmer, 1979) (Maxwell, 1996).

3.8.2 Data Analysis for Quantitative research Methodology

Descriptive analysis was performed using proportions for categorical variables and means for continuous variables. Independent samples t-tests were used to compare means across items with two groups

(male/female; yes/no) and ANOVA for those items with more than two groups. Linear regressions analysis was used to assess the relations between medium of communication and stakeholders, To correlate two variables the Pearsons test will be used. However in order to test whether the data collected are paired or not, the test Paired-T test will be conducted. Chi-square test was used to compare proportions among demographic groups and parent child concordance for relationships and sexual behaviors.. Linear regressions analysis was used to assess relationships between parental knowledge, level of comfort and frequency of talking to youth, and discordancy between parent and child in reported behaviors.

3.9 Data collection of the Survey (duration) 3.10 Pilot Testing 3.11 Ethical consideration
Taking into consideration the human subject in this study, the author has taken the care to respect and protect the rights of the respondents. This includes those who cannot refuse or give consent for

themselves and who may be vulnerable due to force or are under influence. Thus participation in this survey was made aware that it is voluntary and should be conducted only with the agreement of that person. World Medical Association (WMA) encourages researchers involving human subject to adopt the principles stated in this declaration. Every precaution has been taken in order to protect the privacy of the participants and confidentiality of their personal information and to minimize the impact of this study on their mental and social principles. The respondents must be informed of the aims and objectives of this study, reasons it is being conducted, the institutional affiliations of the author and any other relevant details of this study. A brief summary was placed at the start of each questionnaire. They must also be informed of their right to refuse at any time to participate into this survey. Any queries about the survey asked by the respondents should be answered. After ensuring the respondents have understood, the author will then ask the consent of the respondents before asking to fill the questionnaire or to interview them. The author has taken special care

that this research is being undertaken with the approval of the University and is according to the guidelines given.

3.12 Rationale behind choosing the research area.

As Mauritius has many famous tourist sites, many sites were selected to conduct the survey. At first, the area Grand Bay was selected as it is known as the most visited place in Mauritius. Based on certain criteria, Flic-En-Flac was the final choice and was thus selected. The criterion was the convenience factor and cost factor to the author. Moreover Flic-En-Flac is unique in terms of there has been limited Other factor which influences the choice for this study is the pre-interview which has been conducted. The author has discovered many communication barriers in the tourism planning process. According to the selection, the design of the questionnaire was made.

3.13 Factors influencing the research topic

The different factors are as follows: Duration of the research topic.

Duration is an important factor which influences the research topic. If the duration will last longer the cost will be increased and same applies if the duration lasts earlier then the cost will be decreased. Before conducting any market research the author will need to know about the duration so as they will be able to evenly distribute their costs.

Lack of finance

The lack of finance is another factor which influences the research topic.

3.14 Limitations of the survey

Some of the possible limitations of the research undertaken are listed below:

(1) Interviewer bias this may take place, especially with face-to-face interviews as the interviewer may have influence the respondents in replying to the questions (it should be noted though that care should be taken so that this does NOT happen but since totally excluding all bias is impossible, the percentage of error should not be ignored). (2) Exaggeration of answers by the respondents this may happen as not all respondents may give completely honest answers, for various reasons. (3) Poor response rate of self-administered questionnaires since part of the survey was carried out by using this method, the major drawback was that not every respondent selected returned fullycompleted questionnaires.

(4) There exist limitations associated with research projects that involves the theme of this study as well as involvement of the stakeholders in developing country

3.15 Summary
The methodology chapter envelops all the steps which are needed to conduct this research and through which data are being collected. The identified key variables are the Communication channels, the concerned stakeholders and finally the Tourism Planning Process. Bearing in mind of the Aims and Objectives of this study the author has conducted the research. A mixed method was used to facilitate the author to collect the data and has taken care to use the questionnaire and interview for the different stakeholders. The tests used for calculation of the data are the Spearmans test and Mann-Whitney. The sampling technique is Random Sampling. Special care was taken to adhere by the ethical considerations and guidelines.