4.1. The survey population
Given the size of the Barbados’ hotel industry (i.e. only 75 hotels of varying sizes),
all the hotels were invited to take part in the study. The questionnaires were sent by
post either to a HR manager, general manger or deputy general manager between
June and August 2003. Saunders et al. (2003, p. 155) pointed out that ‘‘The
Economist’s (1997) advice of a minimum number of 30 for statistical analyses
provide a useful rule of thumby’’ and it was hoped to yield a sample population of
at least this size. Non-respondents were reminded via telephone 3 times to complete
the questionnaire. In cases where the questionnaire had not been returned after three
telephone calls, additional copies of the questionnaire and a reminder letter were
faxed, emailed, carried or posted to the respondent, followed by several final followup
telephone calls.
Table 1 shows the number of hotels in Barbados broken down by size and the
number of hotels that took part in the survey also broken down by size. Forty-six
responses were received, achieving a response rate of 61%. This response rate
compares favourably with Erras’ (2002, p. 65) report of empirical studies achieving
an average response rate of 43.3%, while Baruch (1999) found an average response
rate of 55.6%. Hoque had obtained a response rate of 35.15%. Table 1 shows that
the final sample was reasonably representative of the Barbados hotel sector as a
whole. The average number of rooms among the respondents was 80, compared with
155.6 for Hoque’s UK sample.