Stage I
In order to explore and identify the relevant attributes of long
and short holidays in Switzerland the authors used two groups
composed of 21 international students (ten in one group and eleven
in the other group) representing various cultures and nationalities
20 G.Q. Mussalam, K. Tajeddini / Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 26 (2016) 18e26
gathered in a class meeting room to explore destination attributes
in their travel behavior. Two focus groups using convenience
sampling method were conducted in June 2013. Each focus group
lasted approximately 45 min in duration. Saturation was reached
after the second focus groups, with no further data and insights
being received at that point. The focus groups were digitally
recorded for information accuracy and later transcribed and
entered into NVivo software for content analysis.
As a result of the analysis, a general list of characteristics was
compiled, which could evaluate attractiveness of short and long
holidays. These results largely agreed with previous research, with
the most consistently mentioned destination attractiveness features
being efficiency, safety, security and lifestyle. Table 1 provides
the list of the 25 key destination attractiveness attributes that were
extracted from the focus groups and also those extracted from the