A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN TOURISM FLOWS

Abstract

As the growing research interest and discussion on social network analysis associated with tourism flows, this paper reviewed 31 studies focused on tourism flows with social network analysis in the past ten years. To ensure the accuracy of the literature review, a systematic quantitative literature review with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), together with descriptive and content analyses, was used to synthesise these past studies. With that, this review aims to (1) identify the overall research trends of social network analysis in tourism flows studies, (2) types and methods of data collection used, as well as (3) future research opportunities. The review findings present an interesting result with the past studies mostly focusing on examining tourist movement, tourism destination management, and tourist behavioural patterns. Furthermore, this review also provides significant findings on emerging data collection methods, like big data, in tourism research. To sum up, this paper offers an insight into social network analysis in tourism flows, primarily on the state of knowledge, methodological understanding, and future research gaps.