ENHANCING RELIABILITY IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF STRATEGIES AND PRACTICE

One of the major concerns in qualitative research is reliability. Readers should be able to understand the various ways in which interpretations and conclusions have been arrived at. In tourism and hospitality research, qualitative techniques are predominantly used to study various aspects including visitor experiences and service encounters, employee relations and destination identification, cultural meanings, community participation and organization. These topics are context-sensitive and dynamic. This means that they cannot be replicated by a mechanical method. This paper examines the strategies to improve reliability in qualitative tourism and hospitality research. The paper uses a critical integrative review. It gives preference to research articles in peer-reviewed journals published between 2022 and the present, and other related articles in discipline-specific journals. The focus is on the philosophy and framework that underpin research design, sampling, participant engagement, researcher reflexivity, audit trails, triangulation, peer debriefing, and data analytical consistency; as well as digital data management and research transparency. The review states that while other components of methodology may also be construed as components of rigour, when reliability is framed as context-sensitive dependability, traceability and consistency of research choices within an identified methodological position become relevant. The study notes that any single method is inadequate, and suggests the use of various methods may be more appropriate. The study proposes a structure comprising philosophical alignment, ethics, and systematic fieldwork, with reflexive and traceable analysis, context-sensitive verification, and an explicit reporting strategy. The review notes that documentary methodology will be improved if strategies are adopted for clear rationale, inconsistencies are analyzed, and limitations are stated. Moreover, the study notes that the approach provides guidance to researchers, supervisors, peer reviewers, and journal editors. The approach is intended to provide a methodological framework for qualitative research, improve trustworthiness, dependability, and/or rigour, and requires further study and verification in various qualitative traditions and research areas including tourism and hospitality.