Analysis Of Network Structure And Power In Tourism Virtual Community

With the advantages of information timeliness,integrity and individuation,virtual tourism communities attract a large number of tourists,and the interactive links between tourists jointly constitute a diverse,dynamic and complex relationship network,which promotes the formation and expansion of online interpersonal relationships.The network structure,as the sum of the track of tourists' interaction in the network space,reflects the spatial attribute,spatial structure and behavior characteristics of the tourism virtual community.In order to move closer to the core position of the network,the participants have chosen to exchange resources to increase their personal voice,which resulting in power.Virtual tourism community's network structure and network power give participants different functions and status,and even different development prospects.Participants with great power tend to be opinion leaders of the community,which plays an important role in information dissemination and public opinion guidance.Therefore,it is of great significance for the stable,sustainable and efficient operation of tourism virtual community to discuss the source,characteristics and effects of network power formed on the basis of a certain network structure.Base on this,starting from the social network analysis,this paper takes Qunar as the research object,to discuss the structural characteristics of the tourism virtual community network and its implied power relations.First of all,using the Python 3.0 to grab the original data,then sorting out the captured data and forming the interactive relationship matrix to clarify the operating mechanism and members' interactive behavior of tourism virtual community.Secondly,to explore the structural characteristics of tourism virtual community network,this paper using Ucinet 6.0 and Gephi 0.9.2 software to realize the visualization and social network analysis of network data.Finally,by measuring network power through centrality and structural hole index,to explain the characteristics,results and sources of network power in tourism virtual community.The study found that:(1)Tourism virtual community is a low-density network,the cohesion of the participants is weak,and the efficiency of information dissemination is low,and there are many small groups surrounding the center in the whole relationship network;(2)Members participating equally in virtual tourism community,the network shows the "core-periphery" structural characteristic and presents a non-balanced development trend.The whole network is constrained by a few core nodes;(3)The network power's differentiation is distinct,and the network has formed a scattering mode of network communication with the opinion leader as the core.Opinion leaders are not only located in the core position of the network,but also have obvious structure hole characteristics,which show the corresponding network power effect results;(4)Tourism virtual community network power shows the characteristics of contentdependence,dynamic develop,intermediary,asymmetry and diffusion limitation;(5)Equal participation,communication,interaction and network location,knowledge,the reputation system and continuous participation are the source of tourism virtual community power.Finally,the limitations and future research directions of this study are proposed.