How Has The COVID-19 Affected The Structure Of The Tourism Flow Network During The National Day "Golden Week"

Tourism is typically comprehensive,highly interconnected and highly sensitive,vulnerable to special events and has a considerable degree of vulnerability.The COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused deep suffering to all mankind,but also hit the tourism industry hard.In the wake of the pandemic,when we look back at the socio-economic impact of this human catastrophe,tourism bears the brunt of it.Tourism flow is the basis of tourism activities and tourism development,it is the nerve center and link connecting the source of tourists(O)-the tourist destination(D).The flow,flow direction and network structure characteristics of tourism flow are related to the development status and strategy formulation of national and regional tourism.The Yellow River Basin has been the birthplace of Chinese civilization since ancient times,giving birth to rich and colorful tourism resources,and is the most important tourist destination and source of tourists in China.The National Day "Golden Week" is also a special period for Chinese tourists to travel intensively and the tourism industry to "burst".Therefore,by comparing and analyzing the temporal and spatial changes of the structure of the tourism flow network structure of the National Day "Golden Week" in the Yellow River Basin before and after the epidemic,we can reveal how the epidemic affected the tourism flow network from a more figurative,contradictory and conflicting perspective.Taking 73 prefecture-level administrative regions in the Yellow River Basin as the basic unit,based on platforms such as Ant Cellular Travel Network and Ctrip Travel Network,this paper crawls the tourists’ "tourist network travelogues" during the National Day "Golden Week" in the Yellow River Basin from 2017 to 2021,constructs a digital matrix of O-D relationship of tourism flow,comprehensively applies social network analysis methods,systematically compares and analyzes the temporal and spatial changes of the level,density,structure and nodes of the tourism flow network before and after the new crown epidemic in the Yellow River Basin,and then analyzes the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of the tourism flow network before and after the new crown epidemic in the Yellow River Basin,and then analyzes the severity of the epidemic,Starting from the epidemic prevention policy,it reveals how the epidemic affects the tourism flow network.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)On the whole,the tourism flow network has a loose structure,an uneven degree of development,and obvious regional stratification.Before the new crown epidemic,the subnets of the tourism network in the Yellow River Basin were mainly distributed in the middle and lower reaches,with Xi’an and Zhengzhou as the first-level dual cores,with high network density and high concentration,and the subnets in the upstream areas were relatively sparse.After the epidemic,the network level of the whole river basin decreased and the density decreased,but as the tourism footprint migrated upstream,the network density increased and the structure became more complete,and Yan’an(red tourism),Jiuzhaigou(nature tourism),Ejina(poplar forest tourism),and Gannan(snowy plateau tourism)became important network nodes.The network density in the middle and lower reaches of the region decreases,and the spatial connection between tourism nodes is weakened.After the epidemic,the role of core nodes in the network has been weakened,and the network has gradually been balanced.Overall,after the epidemic,the decline of the downstream and the rise of the upstream form a huge contrast.It shows that the impact of the epidemic on the tourism flow network in the middle and lower reaches is more prominent.(2)Before and after the epidemic,the nodes of the tourism network of the National Day "Golden Week" in the Yellow River Basin had obvious hierarchical and spatial imbalances,but the distribution and centrality of nodes before and after the epidemic changed greatly.Shift from provincial capitals and excellent tourism cities in the middle and lower reaches to general tourism cities that prefer upstream;Correspondingly,the centrality of nodes in the middle and downstream regions decreases,while the centrality of nodes in the upstream regions increases,and the control of the core section over the network is weakened.It shows that the impact of the epidemic on the tourism flow network in the middle and lower reaches is more serious.The analysis of cohesive subgroups found that 8 cohesive subgroups were formed before and after the epidemic.The number remained unchanged,with 2 2-level subgroups and 8 3-level subgroups,respectively.But some subgroups have been regrouped.(3)In terms of time characteristics,the travel time changed in the shape of an inverted "V",and the number of tourists showed a downward trend after the epidemic,and many tourists chose to travel at the wrong peak.The average travel time is 5-7 days,and the average is 4 days after the epidemic.In terms of spatial characteristics,the length of tourist routes was concentrated in 1-7,and the length of tourist routes showed an obvious negative relationship with the frequency of occurrence,and the short-term tourism characteristics of tourists after the epidemic were significant.The spatial mode of tourism routes in the Yellow River Basin is mainly divided into single-destination mode and multi-destination mode,and the multi-destination mode can be divided into central distribution mode,regional circumnavigation mode,and full-line through mode.(4)After the outbreak of the epidemic,the resistance of the tourism industry in each node city to the impact of the epidemic is generally weak,and the tourism network structure is mainly affected by the degree of impact of the epidemic and the epidemic prevention policies of each city.