Management learning exercise and trainer's note for building grounded theory in tourism behavior

Modeling traveler behavior is challenging because many variables affect each stage of the process. A useful technique to uncover important dimensions and relationship in travel behavior is grounded theory construction. Using data collected by long interviews (see McCracken G. The long interview. Newbury Park: Sage; 1998), tourist responses are categorized by decision area and mapped to test grounded theory propositions. This article shows how researchers can craft useful learning exercises for training analysts and executives from survey data. Also, the example provides additional support for Woodside et al.'s (2004) (Woodside AG, MacDonald R, Burford M. (2004), “Grounded Theory of Leisure Travel,” J Travel Tour Mark, Vol 17 No 1, pp. 7–39.) study on grounded theory of tourism behavior.