Research is an essential element of tourism and hospitality management and planning. It is used to disclose and make sense of existing phenomena within the industry and to identify new and better ways of managing business. This unit will examine the nature, scope and use of research (including planning, design, the use of secondary data, primary data collection and analysis) as applied in the tourism and hospitality industries. A core component of the unit will be a 'real world' research project, which students will undertake in groups to become familiar with the research process from the formulation of research questions to the presentation of findings in a final report. Completion of this unit will provide students with the skills and knowledge to undertake practical research projects in their professional careers.