How to Write a Research Essay in Tourism

Tourism is a niche that many people get attracted to. It is the energy behind globalization, it helps people widen their scope, provides new job positions, united people with same beliefs and interests all over the globe, creates new traditions, as well as meets the demands of researchers. Besides, tourism is not only about places of interest. It speaks also about economic benefits, traditions, history, import and export perspectives, and amazing scientific discoveries.

Travel is a fun area of study. At the same time, it’s a complex and diverse niche that incorporates aspects of hospitality studies, human resources management, marketing, international economics and finance, customer relations. It is important that college students of Tourism course are able to demonstrate a solid understanding of the theory by means of well-structured and concise research essays.

Many pieces of academic writing you will be required to accomplish on your Tourism course will be thesis and research-based essays. Instead of simply summarizing materials found in multiple articles, books, and websites, you will be expected to state a coherent and clear position, as well as to back it up with solid evidence and arguments.

Undergraduates usually find it quite difficult to present a top-notch research essay on Tourism. And this is due to the fact that this project doesn’t belong to a ‘single direction’ research. The paper requires you to have a multispectral point of view on the chosen topic. The research essay mustn’t only present stats and facts.

Due to everything pointed out above, we decided to provide a guide that will assist you with any academic writing in Tourism.

Where to Start?

Obviously, the very first step you have to take to get started is to choose the topic for your future research essay. Mind that the topic you pick must be up-to-date and relevant to the current curiosity of modern society. If you’re going to present Paris, there’s no need to tell your readers about the things every person on earth knows. The author should find something new to hook the readers’ attention! If it’s hard to bring something innovative to the surface, take some old evidence and reveal it unexpectedly to impress the target audience.

If you’re about to present for and against points of Tourism as one of the most popular and interesting niches, there should be in-depth research of the economic, educational, psychological, business, religious, historical, cultural, religious, environmental, and other supporting fields. During your research, you will be able to learn many different things that can that overwhelm readers as well as impress them. For example, it’s very popular to write a research essay about the influence of ecotourism on our life. Besides, there are dozens of topics, such as hotel business, black and white tourism, tourism solutions of nationalism, the role of the Internet in tourism, and so on.

Take the First Step and Choose the Topic

Before you begin to do research, outline, or write the essay, you should choose the topic that you will be particularly interested in working on. Make sure to discuss the list of potential topics with your tutor to choose the most innovative and appropriate one.

• Influences of Social Media on the Tourism Industry;
• The Influence of Movie Setting Locations on Travel Decision-Making;
• Examining the Perception and Attitude of American Customers Towards Online Travel Agencies;
• Ecotourism in Developing Countries as Compared to the Developed Economies;
• New Trends in Tourism Studies 2019;
• The Role of Language Proficiency in Medical Tourism;
• Dark or Black Tourism and Its Benefits for the Local Economies;
• The Impact of Ecotourism on Environment;
• Current Trends and Challenges in the US Tourism Sector;
• Branded Hotels vs. Independent Ones: Where Is a Better Performance?
• Research of Decision-Making in the Process of Group Travelling;
• Research of the Competitiveness in the Tourism Sector in the United States of America;
• Social Exchange Theory in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry;
• Obstacles That Significantly Affect Tourism Development in Third World Countries;
• The Meaning of Luxury in Tourism;
• The Impacts of Royal Wedding on the Hospitality Industry;
• History of Tourism: How Did It Start?
• Tourism’s Contribution to the World Trade and Economic Growth;
• Camping Tourism vs. Hotel Staying: Where’s the Truth?
• Tourism Boom Benefits to the Economics of Rural Japan

Create an Outline & Develop Your Thesis

Basically, your task here is to sketch up a research essay structure. Think about the potential sections of the essay, the number of pages, the materials you’re going to put here or there. Always keep the question in mind and make sure your outlining is guided by it to produce focused notes.

Once you have come up with a catchy topic, and considered your target audience, write a clear thesis statement. A strong thesis statement contains the main focus of your project and states a research claim. Make sure your thesis statement is exactly one sentence in length.

• Provide an arguable and researchable thesis statement. Do not include matters of taste or well-known facts. For instance, the thesis statement like ‘The city of Rome was the capital of the civilization of Ancient Rome,’ would be a failure because it states a fact. Likewise, ‘Ecotourism is a wonderful thing because it supports the local environment,’ would not be a good thesis statement because it just expresses a matter of taste.
• Ensure to include enough details in your thesis statement. In other words, do not simply state that something is ‘bad’ or ‘good.’ Instead, let your readers know what exactly makes it ‘bad’ or ‘good.’

Create an Opening Part

In the introductory section, you’re required to introduce your topic and define the purpose of your research essay. If you’re going to research a debated topic, mention that in the introduction. It is important to let your readers know what your essay is going to be about and how you’re going to proceed with your research. All the findings, results, and conclusions should be saved for the rest of your project.

• The introductory part should be relatively brief. For most research essays, one or two paragraphs will be enough. If you’re asked to write a really long essay, expand this part to meet the word count limits.
• Don’t think that your readers already know the niche of Tourism inside out unless you’re talking about something that is a matter of common knowledge. For instance, if you mention Bubblegum Alley as a tourist destination in your essay, ensure to explain that the question is about a spot in California, where a huge wall of more than twenty meters is covered with used bubble gums. At the same time, things like ‘tourism,’ ‘traveling,’ or ‘sightseeing’ need no explanation.

Provide the Body

The body of the research essay in Tourism is the largest part of the project. Thus, you have to make sure it comprises at least three subsections.
The body paragraphs usually include three main sections:
1. Point
All body paragraphs must be focused. In other words, you have to discuss one major point in each. Make sure that your point is connected to the overall essay focus. The major point of every paragraph is known as ‘controlling idea.’ Every paragraph should comprise a different controlling idea that discusses one aspect of the research essay.
2. Illustration
This is definitely the biggest part of every other body paragraph. It comprises explanations, supportive examples, and evidence. When dealing with illustrations, make sure to use logic in order to explain the key point raised in the topic sentence. Explaining an idea is not enough. Instead, ensure to show your readers that some outside examples and evidence support it as well.
Here are the basic elements that the illustration usually includes:

• Published viewpoints;
• Facts;
• Research from relevant websites, books, articles, and so on;
• Published research data and case studies.

Use and credit illustration properly to make sure it is relevant to the topic. Quote, summarize, or paraphrase outside sources.
3. Explanation
The explanation is used to make it clear on how the readers should comprehend and interpret your evidence used in the illustration part, as well as how your controlling idea supports your thesis statement. Besides, in this part of the paper, you may also point out the significance of your explanation.

When you work on the body paragraphs of the research essay in Tourism, keep in mind that this part of the project cannot be isolated. Your body paragraphs should work together like ‘a single organism.’ Smooth transitions show the links between paragraphs and the links between the paragraphs themselves and the overall focus of the paper.

Transitions are a must-have for every research essay since they help you maintain balance in your essay and show your audience how all parts fit together.

Write the Conclusion

The concluding part is the last section of your research essay in Tourism. This section reminds your audience of what the general discussion was in the introduction. In the research essay’s conclusion, you have to:

• Restate your thesis statement. But don’t copy-paste your original thesis that you’ve written in the intro. Restate the idea, but don’t do that word-for-word.
• Conclude your research project. What are the implications of your research? What solutions to the researched issues have you proposed? How important is your research in the niche of Tourism and outside?
• There must be reliable statistics, evidence, facts, and citations relevant to the chosen topic. For instance, if you’ve worked on the topic that sounds like “Current Trends in Health Tourism in EU,” make sure to inform your readers that the industry has been growing at 15% annually or that according to data of 2014, the total volume of health tourism in the European Union is about 56 million domestic arrivals and 5.1 million international arrivals. Give numbers, comparison, parallelism, or future predictions for the issue.

Avoid repetitions of any kind in the essay. You need to keep your text concise yet containing sufficient detail to address your research question or objectives.

Provide Separate Section for the Cited Works

To write a credible project, you have to give credit to every single source that you took information from.

It is important to mention that you can’t leave this job for the end of your writing process. The section should be built as you write, adding, modifying, and erasing citations as you reference them or decide not to.

EndNote is a wonderful software created for the students, who aren’t at ease with the citation organization. Use one to create a real reference library and link it directly to your text, adding an in-text citation in the process of writing. The software creates a special section at the end of your project.

Paper Formatting

There are different research essay formats like Chicago, MLA, APA, and ASA that exist in academic writing nowadays. Each requires concrete size and font, bibliography, margin sizes, citation peculiarities, spacing, and so on.

The Final Tip to Consider

There should be someone to approach in order to discuss the details of your paper. Someone who is good at writing, well-versed in the niche of Tourism, as well as aware of all the existing academic standards. Feel free to choose some student or an expert in the industry to raise your chances for success.

Use a spell checker to find out if your entire research essay in Tourism is free from any sort of grammar, spelling, or punctuation mistakes that you may not have noticed at the revising stage.