The semi-structured interview was conducted with triangulation. We interviewed tourists with children, local with children, a captian and a staff. We also played the role of participant observer on ferry.
The data are divided into several aspects according to the theme. This data analyzing technique is called affinity diagram, aiming to organize ideas and insights into a hierarchy to show something in common. The themes are facilities and schedule. The facilities part has three subsections, namely stroller belts, toilets and windows.
I have found some recurring paterns in the qualitative analysis. The reason why people choose to take ferry, basically, is that they want to enjoy the scenery. Those interviewees who took ferry because of convenience also mentioned this factor. However, I didn't see many parents with strollers standing outside to enjoy the view, although one interviewee impied she preferred to do so if she came without children. The parents with children above 5 year old, however, don't have such problem. Take the mother I interviewed for example, she were standing on the board with here 4 children when I interviewed her.
I also saw that parents with strollers holding them all the time. Therefore I think it's better to have more stroller belts on ferry.
One interviewee and one staff on ferry said that there should be toilets on the ferry. However the captain said, SL company have disscused many times whether there should be toilets on ferries or not, but they finally decided no. Becauses there are toilets on both sides, and the journey is quite short, so it's not neccessary to bother spending a lot of money building toilets on ferries. I quite understand the decision of companies, because they should take interest into account. Nevertheless, some passengers may travel alone, so it's not convenient for them to go to the toilet when waiting in queue. As for the staff, they have few time to get off in work time. I think the experience would be improved if there are toilets.
The last part of facilities to be improved I think is windows. When I was in the cabine, the light was not so good, although the sun shone brightly outside. As I mentioned before, most passengers wanted to enjoy the scenery on ferry, but not eveyone can stand outside due to space constraint. Larger window size will compensate somehow for those who cannot stand outside and cabine will seem not so crowded too.
The last part to be analyze is schedule. When I was waiting for the ferry on Slussen side, there were many people in queue, but in Allmänna gränd or Skeppsholmen, there were not many passengers waiting. As for the my interviewee, she didn't think it cost long time to wait for a ferry, only 10 minuts. Just almost as long as waiting for a bus. The captain kept recording the number of passengers getting on and taking off every time he landed, which implied SL company is also controlling the schedule somehow. It's best to balance the passengers travelling on both direction. But that's a hard problem which every means of transportation would have, especially during rush hours. So I think SL company has done good enough.
On the way of interviewing, we happened to meet a lady doing survey for SL with questionares. However, her questionares were in Swedish. Although the tourist I interviewed was very satisfied with this journey, and the company may want to invest to make those who travel with ferry most, which is local people, satisfied, yet it's better to consider other English-speaking passengers' opinions.
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