FACILITATING STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL TEXTUAL DATA: A TWO-STEP APPROACH Svetlana Stepchenkova

Studies of holistic destination images involve analysis of qualitative data. The paper proposes a two-step methodology that facilitates statistical analysis of texts. First, the variables of interest are identified in textual files by using CATPAC software. Then, frequency count of the occurrences of these variables in every file is conducted by WORDER program. Special issues of content analysis, such as synonyms, multi-word concepts, plural-singular, etc., are efficiently handled. Methodology application is illustrated on three examples of destination image studies. The place of the proposed approach within the quantitative data analysis methods is also discussed