Respondent
Universe:
This
collection will consist of two survey instruments (on-site and
mail -back) and telephone interviews.
The
respondent universe for the on-site
and mail-back
surveys will be all adults (18 years and older) visiting
Yellowstone National Park during the sampling period (5/22/15 -
9/20/15).
The
respondent universe for the telephone
interviews
will consist of a random sample of individuals from the following
groups:
1.
Yellowstone Park Foundation donors,
2.
Yellowstone Association members, and
3.
Adults (18 years and older)
encountered
during the on-site data collection
visited
Yellowstone at least 5 times in their lifetime and
are
not donors of the Yellowstone Park Foundation or members of the
Yellowstone Association.
Sampling
Plan/Procedures:
This
collection will employ two sampling procedures to obtain data.
On-site
and mail-back surveys:
A systematic sample of all visitors passing through the five
exit gates of Yellowstone National Park will be stopped and
asked to complete the on-site survey. Once the on-site survey is
completed, the surveyor will ask each respondent to take a
mail-back survey to be completed and returned after their trip.
The
telephone interviews with
Yellowstone
Association and Yellowstone Park Foundation members:
The
Yellowstone Association and Yellowstone Park Foundation have
agreed to provide names and contact information of their
members. The membership will be ranked by three levels of
contributors (low, medium, and high). We will randomly select 27
names from both lists (9 from each category; n=52). Our goal is
to have at least 10 completed interviews from each organization.
The
potential respondents will receive notice that they may be
contacted by the University of MT and asked to participate in an
interview about their support for Yellowstone National Park.
Researchers will randomly call contributors from each support
level to request an interview. The selection process will
continue until the goals of at least 10 interviews for each
organization is achieved. If the goal is not reached the research
team will revisit the membership list and continue the selection
process until the goal is met.
Telephone
interviews with repeat visitors:
During the on-site survey 60 (2 per sample day) visitors
responding that they have visited Yellowstone more than five
times in their life and are not a member or have not donated to
YA or YPF will be asked to participate in a follow-up telephone
interview. If they agree, their name and contact information will
be collected at that time. We will randomly select from the list
of repeat visitors and contact them for a telephone interview. At
that time if they refuse we will use the next name on the list.
This method will continue until we have completed 10 interviews.
Instrument
Administration:
We
will use two methods to collect information:
On-site
and mail-back surveys:
During the sampling period, we will stop each car exiting
Yellowstone National Park at one of five exit gates. Each exit
will be allotted sampling days based on the percentage of annual
traffic through the entrance gate (provided by the NPS). For
instance, the West Entrance of Yellowstone will receive 39% of
the total sample days, which represents its proportion of
traffic throughout the year. Each exiting visitor will be
directed to pull into the survey staging area, and asked to
participate in the on-site survey. The adult (18 years old or
older) in the vehicle with the most recent birthday will be
asked to complete the survey. To avoid traffic buildup,
vehicles will be waved through the exit gates when more than two
cars are in the survey staging area. We anticipate collecting a
total of 4,230 on-site surveys, which equates to 141 surveys per
sample day.
Once
the on-site survey is completed, the surveyor will ask the
respondent to take a mail-back survey to be completed and
returned after their trip. Four questions taken directly from the
on-site survey will serve as the non-respondent check for the
mail-back survey. The following script will be used to initiate
the process:
Script
for the on-site survey:
“Hello,
I am a graduate student at the Univ. of MT conducting a quick two
minute exit survey as part of my dissertation regarding visitor
experiences and support for Yellowstone National Park. May I ask
you a few questions?
If
NO
– the interviewer will thank the visitor and wave them
through the gate and select the next vehicle exiting the park.
If
YES
– The interviewer will begin the on-site visitor survey
with the recruited individual. The interviewer will verbally
administer the survey questions and record the responses on an
iPad. Upon completion of the on-site survey,
the respondent will be offered a postage-paid envelope and
mail-back survey to complete and returned at a later date. If
the visitor refuses the mail-back survey, the interviewer will
ask them to answer the following question from the mail-back
survey to serve as a non-response bias check:
“Prior
to this trip, how many times have you visited Yellowstone
National Park in your lifetime?”
Script
for interview recruitment:
"Thank
you for all your help. I am also interested in having a
conversation with visitors who have visited Yellowstone more than
five times. Would you be willing to be interviewed over the phone
at a later date?”
If
YES
-
interviewer will record their first name, phone number.
If
NO
- interviewer will thank the visitor and wave them through the
gate.
Script
for the telephone interview
Park
visitors intercepted at the exit
“Hello,
my name is [ ]. If you recall, you completed a survey as you
exited Yellowstone this summer and at that time you agreed to
participate in a telephone interview. I am calling to see if this
would be a good time to talk about your Yellowstone experiences.
If
NO
- interviewer will ask for a better time to call back.
If
YES
-
interviewer will say:
This conversation will take about 30 and I would like to ask if I
could record our talk.
Members
of the Yellowstone Park Foundation or Yellowstone Association
“Hello,
You were recently contacted by Yellowstone Park Foundation [or
the Yellowstone Association] asking if you would be willing to be
interviewed about your experiences and support for Yellowstone.
I am calling to ask if you have about 30 minutes now to complete
a short interview.
If
YES
-
interviewer will ask,
"Can I have your permission to record our talk so that I can
provide an accurate record of this interview?"
If
NO
- interviewer will ask for a better time to call back.
If
NO
– and not at all interested, interviewer will say, “Thank
you and have a nice day.”
Expected
Response Rate/Confidence Levels:
As
indicated in the table below, we anticipate contacting a total of
4,700 on-site visitors, 4,000 mail-back respondents, and 72
potential interviewees during the sampling period. We estimate
that 90% (n=4,230) will agree to participate in the on-site
survey based on previous experience with this collection method
(Note: ITRR conducts nonresident visitor surveys year-round in
MT and these percentages for refusals are the average obtained
each year).
We
estimate that 95% (4,000) of the on-site respondents will agree
to take the mail-back survey, and 30% (1,200) will complete and
return the mail-back survey. The number of refusals will be
recorded and will be used in calculating the actual response
rate. It should be noted that the on-site and mail-back
respondents will be the same sample of visitors and that 10
telephone interviewees will be on-site respondents as well (10
repeat, unaffiliated visitors with YA or YPF). Of the 72
potential telephone interviewees, we expect a 42% response rate
and 30 total interviews to be conducted. Based on the sample size
and desired 95% confidence level, the margin of error is 4.5%.
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