Spatial Structure Characteristics of Tourist Attraction Cooperation Networks in the Yangtze River Delta Based on Tourism Flow

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the spatial structure of the tourist attraction cooperation network in the Yangtze River Delta, from the perspective of tourist flow. This study conducted spatial and social network analyses of 470 popular tourist attractions in the Yangtze River Delta region of China, accounting for the occurrence and co-occurrence of tourist attraction information in tourist travel notes. The analyzed tourist attractions show an obvious spatial agglomeration effect, including four high-density agglomeration areas and two medium-density agglomeration areas. Degree centrality, closeness centrality, and betweenness centrality were used to examine the tourism function, distribution function, and connection function of nodes in the network; nodes were divided into various types of roles according to their function. There are eight condensed subgroups, but their scales are unbalanced. In these condensed subgroups, several tourist attractions with an intermediate function can be selected as transit and stopover points on tourist routes. This study can contribute to the understanding of tourists’ spatial behavior, clarify the role and status of nodes in the cooperation network of tourist attractions based on tourism flow, and help them to formulate measures for the joint marketing of tourist attractions, and promote the development of tourism in the Yangtze River Delta region.