ÍCAR Project. Research into travel behaviour at Girona – Costa Brava Airport.
The Association for the Promotion and Development of the Counties of Girona (AGi) has commissioned the Higher Institute of Tourism Studies of the University of Girona (INSETUR) to carry out a study analysing the behaviour of three types of users of Girona - Costa Brava Airport: outgoing tourists, incoming tourists and tourists in transit.
MARCH 2014
The study will involve carrying out questionnaires between 12th July and 12th September, the aim of which is to obtain data on key factors such as aspects that determine the choice of the destination and the airport, the multi-motivational profile, the difference between tourists and hikers or the significance of the low-cost factor in deciding upon the destination, all with the purpose of providing a useful source of information for the tourism, transport and infrastructure policies of the destination.
In addition to the most habitual data, this study is designed to obtain new variables through the use of electronic channels, such as working with UTM coordinates in Google Earth: once the person answering the questionnaire has identified his/her country, the corresponding map is produced and the person is invited to indicate the location. This produces coordinates that enable precise geographical information to be obtained that can then be classified according to regions.
Other objectives of this study include the identification of the map of tourism competitors in each region or how far in advance the tourism option is decided upon. This decision is being taken increasingly late on, which is a highly significant factor for determining when to schedule advertising campaigns. The questionnaires also refer to other places visited during the tourist’s stay, which are identified through the Google Earth application. It will be possible to browse, magnify the area and identify the towns that the person answering the questionnaire has visited, thus distinguishing between places for passing through and places for staying at.
