Research proposal Name of the Student Rajarshi koushik goud kagita 18044676 Author’s Note Table of Contents 1. Statement of marketing problem 3 2. Summary of background 3 2.1 Hands On Development presents a different picture of travel and tourism 3 2.2 Issues of the rural population in developing countries 3 2.3 Changes in the mindset of the people 4 2.4 Research questions 5 3. Nature and scope of the research 5 3.1 Aim of the research 5 3.2 Research objectives 5 3.3 Hypothesis 6 4. Justification of the study 6 5. Research plan 7 5.1 Budget of the research 8 6. Data collection methods 8 6.1 Data analysis 10 7. Ethical consideration 10 8. Expected outcome 11 References 12 1. Statement of marketing problem Even though the tourism industry of Australia is growing, very few people know about the advantages of sustainable or responsible tourism. The research will address the problem that the company Hands On Development might face while marketing about the tourism plan. 2. Summary of background 2.1 Hands On Development presents a different picture of travel and tourism For the tourists, travel and tourism is related to leisure (Fodness 2016). The tourists are ready to spend large amounts of money but they want a good time. Due the development of the countries, tourists are going to places where there are modern amenities (Briassoulis and Van der Straaten 2013). In such situations, attracting the tourists towards the development of sustainable environments will be difficult for Hands On Development. They mainly take the tourists to the slums, fair trade factories and the other places where they will understand the importance of sustainable development and will be able to contribute for the development of a sustainable society. 2.2 Issues of the rural population in developing countries In addition to the sustainable development of the society, there are various issues that the society face but are not addressed properly (Ramos and Prideaux 2014). Some of the issues are health and human trafficking. The people who are living in the rural areas of the developing country are not well connected with the amenities of the urban life (Jovicic 2014). Even though, the people in the rural population portray rich heritage of culture and social life, yet they are not well connected with the facilities that urban people are used to (Canavan 2014). Hands On Development wants the tourists to understand the issues that are faced by the people in Nepal and help them develop with the contributions of the tourists. The contribution that will be made by the tourists will act as the funds the will help the people to develop and prosper. The tourism company also aim at the devolvement of the women. In spite of the development of the society and the women being more independent, many places in the world witness issues that are related to ill treatment of women (Fodness 2016). Hands On Development aims at eradicating the issues that are faced by women and help them become independent. They have chosen middle-aged women as their target market because they will be able to connect with the issues faced by the women and they might get the opportunity to contribute for proper decision-making of Hands On Development. They have chosen students as their target market as the students are future of the society and once the issues of the society will be highlighted, they will come to know about it and it will help them to prepare themselves to help the society develop in a better manner (Briassoulis and Van der Straaten 2013). 2.3 Changes in the mindset of the people Certain changes have come among the people who are regular visitor to various countries. People want to get away from the crowd and relax in isolation (Juvan and Dolnicar 2014). They are living in the urban locations and when they want to look for some places travel, they look for places where they can spend their time amidst nature (Poudel, Nyaupane and Budruk 2016). In addition to this, are looking forward to authentic and local products and want to know their use. They want to make their presence felt among the developing countries and help the rural population to develop (Haobin Ye et al. 2014). They are taking interest in the problems faced by the people who are living in the rural population. They are ready contribution so that rural population can develop (Westerberg, Jacobsen and Lifran 2013). Some of the people are liking sustainable tourism because they are aware of the problems of pollution. They feel that if they could spend time amidst nature will be able to intoxicate them (Sidali, Kastenholz and Bianchi 2015). They are gradually becoming aware of the advantages of the sustainable tourism and they are choosing the locations that are different from the place that the place where they are staying (Juvan and Dolnicar 2014). As they are experiencing similar kind of culture in their home, they want to go to different places for some different kinds of experiences (Poudel, Nyaupane and Budruk 2016). Some of the tourists are thinking of going to a location that is different from the urban locations they can go for vacations within a limited budget (Haobin Ye et al. 2014). Tourist locations that are placed in less popular locations will cost less than the locations that are popular among the tourists (Westerberg, Jacobsen and Lifran 2013). They can stay with the local people and hence, they can go for a tour where they can go for vacation in rural places so that it will not be heavy on their pockets (Sidali, Kastenholz and Bianchi 2015). As per the changes in the mindset for the people for sustainable tourism, Hands On Development can look for certain positive developments for the tourism plan 2.4 Research questions After going through the issues of the society and the issues that Hands On Development might face, the following research questions could be taken into consideration: • What is the difference between normal tour and sustainable tour? • What is sustainable tourism and how it can help in development of the society? • What is the contribution of the tourists in developing sustainable tourism? 3. Nature and scope of the research 3.1 Aim of the research The main aim of the research is to make the tourists aware of sustainable tourism and attract them to the initiative taken by Hands On Development. The main target market will be the middle-aged women and the students. 3.2 Research objectives The objectives of the research are: • To indentify the distinction between normal tour and sustainable tour and make people aware of the difference • To evaluate the way sustainable tourism can help in development of the society • To assess the contribution of the tourists in developing a sustainable tourism The objectives of that have been set has been evaluated on SMART objectives framework. The objectives is specific as it is mainly based on sustainable tourism. The organization has based the work on one type of population has aimed at development of the people of Nepal. The result that will be achieved based on the objectives is measurable as it can be measured on the basis of the footfall of the tourists for the Hands On Development. The objectives of the research are achievable as it the marketing plan is not for a huge number of people. Hands On Development has taken into consideration certain target market. As the population is less, the target market will be achieved for the tour plan. Hands On Development is not thinking of setting a goal that will be difficult for them to achieve. They are thinking of development of a particular population and they have set as the target market that will help them to promote the tourism plan among certain number of people. Hence, it can b said that the objectives are realistic. The objectives are time-specific as it can be seen that they have been able to develop themselves in five years. If the target market could not be attracted, then Hands On Development will move on with another target market. 3.3 Hypothesis H1: The tour plan by hands on development will help in sustainable tourism H0: The tour plan by hands on development will not help in sustainable tourism 4. Justification of the study While carrying out the research, both secondary as well the primary data is mandatory. The secondary data will be collected from the online sources. The work of other authors will be retrieved that will help in throwing light on the topics of responsible tourism. The secondary data will also helpful in making an estimation of the expected research outcome. Primary data is mandatory for carrying out the research. The feedback of the participants who are mainly targeted by Hands On Development will be helpful in carrying out the research. The organization has a target market among whom the tourism plan will be promoted. Thus, the feedback of the target market will be essential to understand the future of the tourism plan once it will be implemented in the market. The targeted market that will be concentrated by Hands On Development are the middle-aged women who are between the age group of 45-60 years and the students who are between the age group of 18-30 years. The organization is mainly promoting the tourism plan for the women and the company is consisted of a group of women. Hence, the feedback of the middle-aged women is necessary, as they will be able to tell the issues that the women are facing. The students should also know about the sustainable development. The students are not aware of the issues of the environment and they indulge in activities that hamper the environment. Hence, the tourism plan of Hands On Development needs to be communicated to them. Before promoting the plan, Hands On Development needs to know the feedback of the students before promoting the tourism plan. The feedback of the women and the students will help Hands On Development to understand the needs and the demand of the customers and they will be able to make changes in the plan accordingly. 5. Research plan Activities for the research work 1st week 2nd week 3rd week 4th and 5th week 6th week 7th week Topic selection Retrieving the secondary data and prepare the literature review Prepare the methodology Retrieve the primary data Analysis of the data and interpretation of the data Arrange the findings Conclusion Final submission of the work 5.1 Budget of the research Data collection $ 200 Cost for taking permission while doing the research $300 Transportation cost $100 Cost of stationeries $100 Miscellaneous cost $150 Total cost $850 6. Data collection methods Three types of data collection methods are available to the researcher (Smith 2015). They are: • Quantitative method • Qualitative method • Mixed method Quantitative method When the researcher takes the help of quantitative method, the individual is mainly taking into consideration a huge a number of participants (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). The participants will give the answers for multiple-choice questions and they would not be giving detail answers to the questions (Bryman and Bell 2015). The participants will not be giving any detailed answers and certain codes will be given to the feedback of the participants (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2013). The feedback of the participants will then be calculated based on the codes that will be given to the feedbacks of the participants (Bowling 2014). Qualitative method When the researcher carries out the research by taking the help of detailed answers, the person takes the help of qualitative method for collecting data (Zikmund et al. 2013). They evaluate the data in detail and the result of the research is based on the detailed analysis (Fowler Jr 2013). The researcher looks into every aspect in detail and there is no calculation involved while analyzing the data that has been collected while carrying out a qualitative research (Hair 2015). Mixed method When the researcher is using qualitative data as well as quantitative data to complete the research work, then it can be said that the researcher is taking the help of mixed method for collecting the data (Punch and Oancea 2014). The information is looked into detail as well as the feedback of the participants are being are being analyzed with the help of calculations (Patten 2016). For the current research work, mixed method will be taken into consideration. The secondary data will be collected by from the online sources (Smith 2015). The data will be collected with the help of relevant keywords and the relevant articles will be searched that will throw light on the issues of sustainable tourism (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). The primary data will be collected with the help of survey method, questionnaires will have close-ended questions, and the participants will answer on multiple-choice questions. The number of participants will be more and hence it would be difficult to analyze the data if they give they gave answers in descriptive format (Bryman and Bell 2015). Multiple-choice questions will help in proper analysis of the data, as they will be able to get proper result of the data (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2013). 6.1 Data analysis The secondary data will be analyzed with the help of descriptive and comparative method. The feedback of various authors that will be the secondary data will be collected and the feedback of the authors will be analyzed (Bowling 2014). The secondary data will be qualitative and hence, the feedback of the authors will be analyzed based on the results that have been identified by the authors (Zikmund et al. 2013). The primary data will be analyzed with the help of the quantitative method (Hair 2015). SPSS will be used to get the result of the feedback of the participants who have taken part in the research work. The number of participants will be more and the feedback will be analyzed with the help of SPSS (Fowler Jr 2013). 7. Ethical consideration Proper ethics will be maintained while collecting the data. The participants will not be forced to take part in the research work (Punch and Oancea 2014). If the participants are ready to give their feedback to the questions, then only they will be included for the research work (Patten 2016). The purpose of the research work will be properly explained to them. In addition to this, will be assured that their personal information will not be leaked. If they do not want to tell their names to get published, then no such publications will be done (Smith 2015). However, if there is any need to publish their name, then proper permission will be taken from them before publishing their name (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault 2015). Either if there is any need to record the interview, in the audio format or in the video format, then permission will be taken from the participants before making any such recordings (Bryman and Bell 2015). As far as the secondary data is concerned, it will be retrieved ethically. Many websites block the information from the users and anybody who wants to view the information will have to make the payment (Cohen, Manion and Morrison 2013). The websites will not be hacked to get the information. The information will be searched to get the information from other sites (Bowling 2014). 8. Expected outcome Going by the background of the study and the situations faced by Hands On Development, it can be expected that the sustainable tourism can be well promoted among the women and the students. 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