Study On The Roles Of Tourist Destinations In The Yangtze River Delta Metropolitan Area

Metropolitan tourism is gradually calling the attention of tourism geography andtourism planning. Most of the previous researches have focused on spatial structurefeatures, development present situation assessment, and development strategy, but fewscholars study the roles of the tourist destinations of metropolitan area. From twoperspectives——supply side and demand side, and utilizing social network analysis andSPSS statistical analysis, this paper explores the roles of the sixteen tourist destinations ofthe Yangtze River Delta Metropolitan Area in the tourism economy network and travelitineraries, in order to provide reference for regional tourism planning, tourism routesdesigning, tourism products rationally developing and tourism facilities constructing.This paper is consisted of six charters.In Charter1, General Introduction, it firstly sketches out the significance of the studyboth in theory and practice, and then summarizes the progress of metropolitan area,tourism economy connection, spatial patterns of travel itineraries and the roles of touristdestinations at home and abroad. The author thus puts forward her own study content andframework of the article.In Charter2, Related concept and Theoretical foundation, the author presents certainnotions of metropolitan tourism, tourist destinations, the roles of tourist destinations,tourism economy connection and the spatial pattern of travel itineraries. Then sometheories such as Spatial Interaction Theory, City Network Theory and Social Network,providing solid theory foundation for the study.In charter3, Perspective1——supply side, analyzing the roles of tourist destinations inthe tourism economy network. Firstly, by calculating the tourism economy connectionbetween two destinations, it constructs tourism economy network, and then the authordescribes the network characteristic by using UCINET; on the basis, combining networkcentrality and equivalence cluster analysis, this paper locates the role and function of eachdestination in the network, finally the influence factors are discussed. The results indicate:Shanghai is the core trip destination; Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhouare sub-core tourist destinations; Ningbo, Huzhou, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou are important tourist destinations; others are common destinations and marginal destinations. Tourismdevelopment ability, the level of economy, traffic conditions and urban development areimportant factors affecting the role and function of destinations in the network.In charter4, Perspective2——demand side, analyzing the roles of touristdestinations in travel itineraries. Based on the travel itineraries of local top10travelagencies, which is launched on the official website, the author studies the spatial patternsof travel itineraries, and analyzes the roles of the tourist destinations of the Yangtze RiverDelta Metropolitan Area in tourists’ travel itineraries. The results show that: SingleDestination Pattern and Full Loop Pattern are the main travel patterns of main touristmarkets in the Yangtze River Delta Metropolitan Area. In the tourists’ itineraries,Shanghai always plays the role of Egress destination, Nanjing is Gateway destination,Hangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing and Nantong areregarded as Touring destinations. Changzhou, Taizhou and Taizhou act as Singledestinations. Huzhou and Zhoushan are Touring destinations and Single destinations.Ningbo’ roles are more balanced, playing the roles of Single destination, Hub destination,Gateway destination and Touring destination. The roles of the destinations in tourists’travel itineraries are closely related to the abundance, level, popularity of tourismresources and tourism traffic (including (external traffic and internal traffic).In charter5, the author synthetically positions the roles of the sixteen destinations ofthe Yangtze River Delta Metropolitan Area, and puts forward the optimal measures andstrategies. Namely, reinforcing tourism cooperation between high level tourist destinationsand low level tourist destinations; making clear the functions of destinations andimproving the facilities; building the integral tourism image of the area and improving thetourism route marketing;In charter6, Conclusion and Discussion, the author summarizes the main conclusionand views of this article, as well as some deficiencies and work to be done for furtherimprovement.