Globalized Travel: A Relational, Quantitative Study

Abstract

In 2009, I began collecting tourism data for the first of two empirical papers I needed to write before starting the dissertation. Previous research on the structure of global inequality tends to neglect tourism, while work on tourism often emphasizes the meanings and localized consequences of these industries on local communities. My study uses quantitative travel data as a measure to explore global inequality. Rather than examining global inequality vis-à-vis a subset of cities, a single country, or a particular region, I use globalized travel to examine inequality through the connections between country-pairs, and argue that this method of analysis provides important insights into the dynamics of global inequality that are otherwise ignored. This case study details one project, from research question to publication, alerting students to specific methodological and substantive problems that occur when conducting original research. It sheds light on the processes and hurdles of publication using a quantitative analysis of globalized travel as a case study. I describe the process of collecting original data and choosing an appropriate methodology, with a particular focus on how a relational, country-pair examination of data can provide insights into the complex and multi-varied structure of globalization.

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