Through a random route to the goal : theoretical background and application of the method in tourism surveying in Poland

Classic survey methods are ineffective when surveying a small or rare population. Several methods have been developed to address this issue, but often without providing a full mathematical justification. In this paper we propose estimators of parameters relating to Random Route Sampling and explore their basic properties. A formula for the Horvitz-Thompson estimator weights is presented. Finally, a case of a tourism-related survey conducted in Poland is discussed.