Abstract
The characteristics of information flow, as represented by the Baidu index, reflect the pattern of tourism flows between different cities. This paper is based on the Baidu index and applies the seasonal concentration index and social network analysis (SNA) methods to study the spatial structure characteristics of tourism flows in China. The results reveal that: (1) both the search volume of the Baidu index in different cities and the online attention to different scenic areas exhibit obvious spatial heterogeneity and seasonal differences; (2) regions with strong tourism flow connections mainly occur in the areas between metropolises or among the inner cities of urban agglomerations, which are largely distributed on the southeast side of the Heihe–Tengchong Line; (3) the development of the whole tourism flow network in China is low, with an unbalanced development between tourism supply and demand, indicating that tourism resources are concentrated in a few cities and that most of the information interaction among cities occurs in core areas, while a weak interaction is observed in peripheral areas; (4) cities like Beijing and Wuhan attain obvious advantages in regard to their tourism resources, whereas other cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, exhibit a high demand for tourism. Moreover, tourism information flow networks are concentrated in several cities with an important role in the Chinese urban system, such as Beijing, Wuhan, and Chengdu, because they contain abundant tourism resources, well-developed transportation systems and advanced economic and societal development levels. (5) Cities such as Beijing, Lhasa, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou possess numerous advantages due to structural holes, and they thus occur at an advantageous position in the tourism flow network.
Highlights
With the increasing popularity of Internet technology in China, the Internet has become an important tool for people to obtain information and assist their decision-making processes
This paper focused on the spatial structure and pattern of tourism flows according to Stewart (1996) [26], Mckercher (2008) [27], and Guo (2014) [28], a complex network approach able to study well the spatial structure and pattern of tourism flows, using the method of social network analysis
Based on the information flow perspective, this study analyses the spatial distribution characteristics of the tourism flows in China from three aspects: first, the spatial distribution of the Baidu index search volume in each city is considered, which reflects the level of the tourism demand in different cities to a certain extent
Summary
With the increasing popularity of Internet technology in China, the Internet has become an important tool for people to obtain information and assist their decision-making processes. The Internet has become a popular method to obtain tourism information for an increasing number of people because of its low cost, convenient access and diversified methods to search for information [2]. The development of information technology, especially the Internet, has generated an important type of data acquisition method. With the development of information and communication technology and advancement of social network platforms and organizational structures, the space of flows has increasingly become a new model to study social space. When the concept was first proposed, many scholars performed research from the perspective of the space of flows
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
