As part of a PhD research project, Travellerspoint.com will be hosting a two month survey, measuring people's perceptions of places they have never visited before.

The project focuses on Dubai, one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world. Dubai's image will be compared to other places that are in some way either similar or particularly contrasting. The global comparative study includes destinations such as the Canary Islands, Flanders (Belgium), Florida, Morocco, Singapore, the Netherlands and Wales.

The project is particularly innovative as it applies cutting-edge qualitative research through quantitative survey techniques on a global scale. In the survey, respondents will be asked to imagine that they are travelling to one of the case-study destinations.

They will then be requested to describe in story format, what they think this travel experience would look like. Travellerspoint; with nearly half a million 'unique' visitors a month and close to 20,000 members in over 200 countries; will, it is hoped, generate thousands of responses from all over the world.

Until recently, it would have been virtually impossible to analyse such enormous quantity of qualitative data as a researcher would have had to wade through literally hundreds of thousands of words and code them. Then, to assure reliability of the results, at least two other colleagues would have had to go through the same process, creating serious time and man-power demands on limited resources.

However today, with computerised neural network content analysis software such as CATPAC, these types of constraints have been eliminated. With respondents submitting their written accounts online, the data is already in digital format, and therefore the time involved in data-entry and analysis is significantly reduced, from several months, if not years, to only a few hours.

To maximise response rates, all participants will be automatically eligible to win the grand prize raffle draw: A free holiday to Dubai, including: an economy class ticket from any KLM serviced point in the world, via Amsterdam to Dubai; 7 nights at the 5-star Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa, a member of 'The Leading Hotels of the World' and part of Jebel Ali International Hotels, featuring its own golf course, over 13 restaurants and bars, a shooting club, horse riding stables, spa, various wet and dry sports facilities, marina and of course a sparkling white sandy beach.

On top of that, Travellerspoint will offer € 500.- cash spending money, if the winner is a Travellerspoint.com member (membership is free).

The initiator of the project, Robert Govers, is currently employed as Tourism Economics Research Coordinator at the Flemish Centre for Tourism Policy Studies, which is funded by the Flemish minister for tourism. The Centre is part of the University of Leuven; the oldest and largest university in Belgium with over 28,000 students.

As a former lecturer at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, Dubai, Mr. Govers has been working on the project for several years. Bewetour Professor Dr. Frank M. Go of the Centre for Tourism Management (CTM) in the Netherlands, supervises the project.

CTM is a dedicated research centre of the Rotterdam School of Management, which, according to BusinessWeek, is one of the premier non-US business schools in the world. Mr. Govers and Professor Go, who has been affiliated with universities in the US, Canada and Hong Kong, are delighted with the enthusiastic support they have received from these visionary hospitality and tourism industry organizations.