Astronomical Tourism Research- help needed

[SkyWatch]

Hi All,

Samaneh Soleimani is a member of the ASSA and is doing her PhD at the Uni of SA in the area of Astronomical Tourism. I have been corresponding with her for a while about her research, and she has now developed a questionnaire to help in her information gathering. She would like as many people as possible to complete the questionnaire, and there is even a “sweetener” of a possibility of a $50 gift voucher. Would you be able to help her out and complete her questionnaire? It takes about 10 minutes.

Here are the details from Sam:

Have you ever visited an observatory? Have you ever participated in an astronomy festival, tour or a stargazing night? If yes, please help me with my PhD research to share the beauties of the sky and win one of the 20, $50 Gift Vouchers by completing this survey:
https://doit.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_001w7XYl5QIooZf

I really appreciate your help and support. Clear skies, Sam :)

Thanks a lot folks!

- Dean

[el_draco]

Done... good survey and I recommend others do it. Hey its an indication that someone is thinking about astro-tourism and that's a good thing!!

[Occulta]

Also Done. Good set of questions.

Chris

[Atmos]

Done!

[rally]

Filled it out but found the language used to be relatively poorly worded as if English was a Second Language and some things not well defined.
I wonder if the researcher is an active amateur astronomer as the questions seemed to lack either the direction and/or anticipated responses that would be needed to cover many aspects of our hobby activities.

eg what constitutes an "Astronomical Festival" as distinct to their already well defined use of the term "Astronomical Tour"
So would a 3 day star party or attendance of the Advanced Imaging Conference be regarded as a "Festival" ?


But I did my bit - hope it helps them and the discipline.

[Atmos]

An Astronomical Festival is what we would usually call a Star Party, the usage of the word "festival" makes me think that she hasn't been to one. Either that or she is from a part of the world that uses that vernacular (not Australia (IIS), America (CN) or Europe (CN+SGL).

I assume that an Astronomical Tour then would be something like the Planetarium in Science Works (Melbourne) or around Ayres Rock.

[Allan_L]

Survey completed.
Interesting experience.
Hope some good comes of it. :thumbsup:

[AussieTrooper]

Done.

[pfitzgerald]

Completed the survey yesterday.

I agree with Rally's comments re the way in which some of the questions, especially for a PhD research project, were poorly constructed/written. Something that her supervisor should have picked up and assisted her with.

It will be interesting to see the results of the survey and any future outcomes from it - all the very best with your research Samaneh.

Paul

[rally]

Colin,

The survey commences with the opening definition page.

"Have you ever visited an observatory or a dark-sky site? Have you ever participated in a stargazing night? If Yes, you are an astronomical tourist.

Astronomical tourism is a type of tourism, in which travellers are motivated by sky-observation activities and their travel/destination decisions are based on these activities.

Astronomical tours take anytime between half a day to one week with a group of people or alone."




Clearly, star parties fall within that particular definition - as asserted by them.
Thus defined, throughout the survey they ask many questions about astronomic tours.

At the end they then introduce a new term called "Astronomical Festivals" and ask if you have attended one ! Clearly it can't be an Astronomic Tour because that question has already been done to death !

Its not the least bit clear what one is - in fact I find it difficult to even think of what such a "Astronomical Festival" could even be given the broad definition of "Astronomical Tour"
In any event, I shouldn't have to think about it - it should either be self evident or clearly differentiated by an unambiguous definition.

As stated, for a PhD research survey its a poorly worded attempt that wouldn't pass a Grade 9 English test.
That is why I questioned if the person actualy has any astronomy experience at all.

I dont even agree with the assertion that by attending a stargazing night or dark sky night that I am a tourist - Im just doing my hobby
So it seems to me the whole survey is flawed from the ouset based on a false assertion.

But I still completed it to the best of my ability despite all this to try and support the process.
It would be my greatest hope that someone who knows something about amateur astronomy takes this on and rewords the entire survey starting with definitions and opening assertions.
Most of the star parties I have attended have been within 10 and 30 mins drive from my own home, most astronomic observing is done either from home or a nearby dark site - can that really be regarded as tourism ?
I guess so if you predicate this from the beginning !

The PhD thesis will be subject to peer review - so the whole processs is all about scrutiny - far better to be scrutinised at the beginning than at the end and fail !
Maybe the OP can feed this back to the PhD student.

Cheers
Rally

[Atmos]

My difficulty in all of this is that I have never been to an observatory, I own a dark site and I have only ever been to one star gazing night that I wasn't running which was Tak Attack 2016 :)

I do agree with you Rally, the wording of it was quite poor. The layout was also below a standard that I would expect of a PhD student, close to that of a VCE student or an undergrad. There are a lot of double ups (questions and selections) and poorly defined terms.

[OzEclipse]

I agree that the survey had problems and contained unconscious bias. The student obviously had a very limited view of astro-tourism and I found myself struggling to find the least incorrect statement on some questions.

The double ups could be deliberate. These sort of surveys often ask the same question two ways to test the consistency of the respondent.

Joe

[Wavytone]

Started but couldn't be bothered finishing it, the questions are incredibly naive for someone who is supposed to be doing a PhD.

It also suggests the candidate has never attempted to travel for a specific purpose, such as to solar eclipses, nor to visit places of astronomical significance across europe.

Seems a trip to a local star party is considered tourism.