A discussion of Video as a Data Collection Tool

This paper considers the use of video as a tool for data collection in tourism research. Initially, the paper offers a review of video as a data collection tool as well as studies in tourism and the broader social sciences that have used video in data collection. A typology of usage is provided that delineates whether the video is created internally or externally to the projects, created with participants or recordings of them, created to be shared publicly or privately, recordings of natural or staged events, and finally used as a tool of elicitation or as data. Subsequent discussion focuses on a description and reflection on one specific study that used video as a tool of data collection as well as elicitation to co-construct narratives of participants. The aim of this paper is to provide a basis for other researchers considering the use of video in data collection.