Introduction

Methodologies and methods cannot be discussed without first considering their meanings along with the related term paradigm. Why the latter term? Because paradigms serve to inform both methodologies and methods used in tourism studies (as well as broadly in the social sciences). First, the meaning of methodologies is founded on the definition of its singular form: a methodology. A methodology “is a model, which entails theoretical principles as well as a framework that provides guidelines about how research is done in the context of a particular paradigm” (Sarantakos, 1998: 32). Second, methods are defined as “the tools or instruments employed by researchers to gather empirical evidence or to analyze data” (Sarantakos, 1998: 32). Third, a paradigm is a particular view of ...