Tourists’ digital footprint: the spatial patterns and development models of rural tourism flows network in Guilin, China

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a network analysis framework for rural tourism flows based on the digital footprint data of Ctrip visitors, and studies network the spatial characteristics and spatial development patterns of rural tourism flows. Research results show the following: (1)rural tourism flow is characterized by large-scale flows between nodes with superior resource endowment conditions and convenient transportation. (2) The overall network structure of rural tourism flow has a low density, and the centrality of rural tourism nodes has an obvious hierarchical structure, and obvious structural hole phenomenon. (3) Rural tourism flow has a significant core-edge structure. (4) The internal space of rural tourism flow exists in several modes, such as core node development, axis development “along traffic arteries” and domain development “clustering groups.” This study addresses the regional imbalance of rural tourism resources and with the intent of boosting the high-quality development of rural tourism destinations.