Deadline for the Draft Proposal

Sooooon, very soon, our draft version of the research proposal is due. Time for research...

Einstein was a very smart man! I've got nothing to add ;-)

Tourist motivations

Especially during this phase of finding an appropriate research topic, I'm basically thinking about it - no need to say, but clearly involuntarily - 24/7.

I'm still waiting for the enlightening moment where I can throw everything I came up with so far overboard and present my completely new and mind-blowing idea of a perfect research topic...

But in order to not ending up having nothing in the end - especially with the deadline for my draft proposal coming up in only five days - for now, I am trying to focus and stick to my first idea.

London is one of the leading tourist destinations worldwide. According to London & Partners (2011), the city was visited by 15.2 million overseas visitors in 2011. When including domestic visitors, the total number of visits even adds up to 26.3 million. This is quite a number, I would say!

So people - what makes you want to visit London? (Key word: Tourist motivations)

Is it the image of a global city? London - just another check on your list of 'been there, done that'? Or is there more to the 'Magic of London'?

First of all, I will have to find a clear definition of what a 'global city' is. (Note to myself: look up definitions for 'global city')

Second of all, I definitely need to narrow the topic down as much as possible. I was thinking about finding out about tourist motivations of London visitors taking a city break, excluding domestic visitors.

Should I focus on European visitors or rather keep it to international visitors?

In search of an appropriate research topic...

"Be aware that selecting a good topic may not be easy." (University of Michigan-Flint, 2007)
Uhhh yesss, I can tell you a thing or two about this!

From experience I know for sure that finding a good thesis topic can be a longsome process. Of course, there are about 1,000,001 topics out there, irrespective of the area or scope of the assignment. And probably, many of those topics deserve to be researched and written about. But the crux of the matter is the personal interest - and you better be interested in what you are writing about when you have to deal with it for about three to six months of your life.

Apart from being interested in the topic, it can be of great help to have a certain experience in the chosen area. Extensive research needs to be conducted somehow or other, but as a start, it might help to know roughly where to start looking for information. Moreover, having connections in the industry and knowing people that know answers to very specific questions is always a plus.
As I have to write a tourism-related dissertation, this obviously is an area I have some or even a bit more experience in. However, it still leaves the range of topics quite broad.

At the beginning of my first MA term at the UoG, I was convinced that I would be writing about something related to new technologies - one of my favourite topics and personal interests. However, I wasn't quite sure which direction to focus on, since I had already written my Bachelor Thesis on 'Smartphone Travel'. Focusing on German tourists, I analysed the influence of the use of these new mobile devices on tourists' experiences. By means of qualitative as well as quantitative research, my previously formulated hypothesis of an existing influence was proven as true. Furthermore, I established a number of impacts on the travel industry resulting from this paradigm shift. (Sorry, I tried not to go too much into detail about this, but whoever is interested in more information - just send me an email.)

Throughout the whole six months of working on my first thesis, I was always very interested in the topic and I still am. Nevertheless, I came to the conclusion that I might want to write about something completely different this time. One the one hand, I would probably end up finding and using the same information all over again and finally get stuck. And on the other hand, I would like to broaden my horizon even further by specialising in a different tourism area this time.

So after some random and a little chaotic brainstorming, I figured I would like to put the focus for my dissertation on London - the city I chose as my current place of residence and at the same time, one of the world's greatest metropolises.
The final inspiration I needed came from the title of a dissertation written by a former student about city and country branding.

For my dissertation, I would like to research in what way and to what extent London as a city brand has an influence on the perception of England (not the UK as a whole) as a country.
For example, personally, I am not very attracted to visiting various other parts of England, but I would always come as tourist to visit London. Against this background, my intention for visiting England lies in exclusively visiting the metropolis London.

I might not be able to make myself very clear about this just yet, but in general, I would like to research the relation of metropolitan cities and their countries in regard to tourism. 'City branding' might be the correct tag for this or at least play a role in my explanation.

Methodology-wise, I would probably like to make use of a wide-stretching online survey that (hopefully) establishes the intentions of international tourists who visit London and their interest in and opinion about England as a country destination.


Well, this is what I've come up with so far concerning a decent research topic...
I could really use some feedback on this. So please feel free to make comments - even if you think this topic seems completely absurd or anything. Nothing's set in stone yet and all sorts of ideas or feedback are welcome :-)

Welcome

Hello there & welcome to my blog!

So this is it: my first official blog... I am proud to present ;-)

In terms of my MA in International Tourism Management, I am supposed to write a 15,000 word dissertation within the next couple of months. This blog will hopefully help me to come to grips with this task by keeping you (whoever is interested) updated about the progress I'm making and exchanging information or advice.

So much for the theory!

In practice, I have written similar pieces of work before - namely a couple of extensive research reports and finally, my Bachelor Thesis at the end of my undergraduate study. For the latter, I didn't have any limitation in word count and wrote over 20,000 words on the topic of 'Smartphone Travel' (I might go a little bit more into detail on this later on). Now one could assume that, having experience in writing reports and having produced an even longer one before, this upcoming dissertation is -as we Germans use to say- 'pille-palle' (the closest translation would probably be 'easy peasy lemon squeezy'). But far from it!

Obviously, it is all about quality rather than quantity, which makes the whole process so complex.

However, apart from not having a specification on word count, another thing I didn't have for my Bachelor Thesis was a BLOG... Tadaaa, here we go - it can only get better :-)

From experience I can tell that writing a dissertation or thesis (however you want to call it) can be quite intense, time-consuming, and most of all nerve-wracking (especially for people around me - sorry about that in advance!). But just as much, submitting the final piece of work can be very rewarding - especially if you have a high demand of yourself and are convinced of your own work, irrespective of the grade, which will follow sooner or later.

Oh boy, how much I wish that I had reached that rewarding-stage already! But well... A good friend of mine has recently given me this fridge magnet, which pretty much says it all:

Having said this, I will get started and try to put my ideas for a thesis topic in words in the following post and keep you updated.

Thanks for reading & good night for now!