Geographical characteristics of tourism flow network structure in the Yellow River Basin: a case study along the Huang-Gansu-Su section

Abstract

Taking the Yellow River basin as the study area, the social network analysis method is used to analyze the network structure characteristics and the differentiation mechanism of tourism flow (total volume, automobile, train, and airplane). Through analysis, it is found that the factors influencing the geographical characteristics of the tourism flow network structure in Gan Su section along the Yellow River are mainly tourism resources and tourism traffic accessibility. Tourism resources involve the characteristics of resources themselves, the similarity, and complementarity of tourism resources. The higher the resource level of a tourism node, the more chance it has to become a core tourism node or a transit tourism node. The more distinctive the resource points of tourism nodes themselves, the greater the chance of tourists to visit. The accessibility of traffic is restrictive and guiding to the tourist flow. Usually, when choosing a tourism node, tourists first consider node resources, popularity and its geographical location. Under the condition that node resources and popularity are not different with their geographical characteristics, tourists are more willing to go to tourism nodes with better transportation accessibility. The overall structure of tourism flow network is characterized by “large looseness and small cluster,” forming a tourism flow network with provincial capital cities as the core. There are many subnets in the middle and lower reaches of the region, relatively sparse subnets in the upstream region, and almost no formed subnets in the inter-provincial border area. The core edge feature is obvious, and the “trickle down effect” of the core area to the edge area is limited. The unevenness of tourism flow distribution, the asymmetry of tourism flow direction, and the connectivity difference of different networks jointly shape the network structure.