Analysis of structural characteristics and influencing mechanisms of the tourism network in Hainan tropical rainforest national park from multiple stream perspective

Tourism flow serves as an important basis for measuring the tourism characteristics within a region, which helps to clarify the spatial pattern of the regional tourism system. Taking 65 tourism nodes in Hainan tropical rainforest national park as the research object, a diversified flow network is constructed by integrating multiple big data, providing a certain decision-making basis for the layout and planning of the tourism system and the high-quality development of tourism space in Hainan tropical rainforest national park.

Based on the modified gravity model and critic weighting method, a single flow network of Hainan tropical rainforest national park was constructed from four dimensions: tourist flow, information flow, quality flow, and cooperation flow. A comprehensive flow network was constructed according to the strength index of each single flow network. Social network analysis was used to explore the overall, node, and connection strength network structure characteristics of Hainan tropical rainforest national park. Finally, QAP quadratic assignment method was used to analyze the influence mechanism between each network.

1) The overall development of each individual factor flow network is uneven, with network tightness manifested as quality > information > tourists > cooperation. The tourist and cooperative flow networks are unstable, with stagnant circulation and severe polarization of nodes; 2) The quality flow and information flow present a “whole circle” distribution structure with Wuzhishan as the core, and rely on high-quality core nodes such as Wuzhishan and Bawangling to attract traffic. The tourist flow presents the characteristics of “core leadership, gathering within the area, and dispersed within the area”. The cooperation flow is centered around the nodes of Bawangling, Jianfengling, and Wuzhishan, which have obvious faults with other nodes; 3) The overall pattern of the integrated flow presents a “one main and two auxiliary, core led” pattern with Wuzhishan as the absolute dominant main core and Jianfengling and Bawangling as secondary cores, as well as a hierarchical structure of “core sub core edge”; 4) In terms of impact mechanism, the integrated flow network is based on tourist flow as the connection foundation, regional cooperation as the key connection, information flow as the driving intermediary, and node quality as the auxiliary driving force.

Hainan Tropical rainforest national park has great potential for tourism resources, but its development is uneven. It should give full play to the core leading role of Wuzhishan area, develop together with the entrance community, strengthen the radiation ability and driving effect of each area’s core nodes on the edge nodes within the area, and cooperate between areas to form a node planning system of “main hub secondary hub non hub” and a core axis planning system of “one horizontal and three vertical”.