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The Tourism Research Centre (TRC) in the School of Business at the University of PEI is pleased to announce the release of a new report profiling members of the Traveller's Voice, an online panel designed to gather research about visitors to PEI. The panel was launched in April 2008 as one of the needs identified in meetings held with tourism industry stakeholders and the TRC in 2006.

'Tourism industry stakeholders have a variety of research needs and require answers in a timely manner, and many have a limited number of resources available,' says Dr. Sean Hennessey, Faculty Director of the TRC. 'There was a need to have a research platform that has the capability to handle many research requests without the high cost of the PEI Visitor Exit Survey. We are now in a position where we can collect data on a new PEI-related topic every three to four weeks. Although the Exit Survey brings in incredible amounts of data, we are now able to create an ongoing dialogue with visitors and really explore niche markets and very specific research questions.'

The Traveller's Voice allows all stakeholders in the industry, from the private and public sectors, to suggest questions or topics that can then be asked to a large sample of travellers (approximately 8,000 panel members at present). Members are contacted every three to four weeks as new studies are launched. In general, the response rate for panels is about 35-40 per cent, so a relatively large sample can be collected rapidly at relatively little cost.

The first report being released is based on the survey completed by panel members when they initially join the Traveller's Voice. This report details results collected from the panel's launch in April until early September. In order to join the panel, members must have visited PEI on a pleasure trip of at least one night within the past five years, not be a permanent resident of PEI, and be at least 18 years of age. Upon meeting these criteria, members are asked to provide basic demographic information about themselves, and a brief history of their travel patterns to PEI.

'This profiling survey is critical to demonstrate that the panel offers valid research results,' said Dr. Hennessey. 'We know that the members making up the panel population are very similar to the profiles of visitors to PEI as found in the Exit Survey.'

Some of the more interesting results of the profiling survey include:

1. The Traveller's Voice is composed of many avid travellers. Those who had taken a trip of four or more nights had actually taken an average of 4.31 trips of four or more nights in the past two years. PEI was the most popular destination (16 per cent visited), followed by South Atlantic states (9 per cent), New England states (8 per cent), and Nova Scotia (8 per cent). PEI generally would not be the most popular destination among a random sample of travellers, but the panel is for recent visitors to PEI, and panel recruitment methods skew the PEI results.

2. Secondary home-owners and seasonal residents make up 3.4 per cent of the panel. Of those, 60.5 per cent are Canadian residents, and 38.0 per cent are US residents. Over half (52.2 per cent) spend two to four weeks in PEI per year, and almost one-fifth (18.2 per cent) spend more than nine weeks in PEI in a year.

3. Almost half (48.1 per cent) of panel members who do not own a second home in PEI have been to PEI only once in the past five years. However, 16.6 per cent had visited PEI at least five times in the past five years.

The full report is available on the TRC's website at or directly at . For further information regarding the research completed by the TRC and for copies of all reports released, please visit the TRC's website, email us at trc@upei.ca, or call (902) 566-6096.