INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
Published online 20 October 2011 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.876
A Social Network Analysis of Overseas
Tourist Movement Patterns in Beijing: the
Impact of the Olympic Games
Xi Yu Leung1, Fang Wang2,*, Bihu Wu2, Billy Bai1, Kurt A. Stahura1 and Zhihua Xie2
1
William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
2
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
ABSTRACT
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games had a great
impact on the tourism industry in Beijing,
especially on tourism ows and movements.
This study used content analysis and social
network analysis methods to examine 500
online trip diaries and analyze overseas
tourist movement patterns in Beijing during
the Olympics. The result revealed that
overseas tourists were most interested in
famous traditional attractions, and their
movements were focused in the central city
area of Beijing. The study identied the
diversity of tourist attractions and the
expansion of main visiting areas as the two
main changes during the Olympics.
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 14 February 2011; Revised 21 September 2011;
Accepted 22 September 2011
Keywords: content analysis; overseas tourist;
social network analysis; 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games; tourist attractions; tourist movement
patterns.
INTRODUCTION
T
ourism involves the movement of people
through time and space. Tourists experi-
ence destinations differently, and these dif-
ferences in consumption styles will be reected
*Correspondence to: Fang Wang, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road,
Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, P. R. China.
E-mail: wfphd@163.com
by differences in movement patterns (Mckercher
et al., 2006). Tourist movement patterns are the
spatial changes of activity locations of tourists
(Lau and Mckercher, 2007). Tourist movement pat-
terns contain various items of information that can
be used for designing better tourist packages, pro-
viding more attractive combinations of attractions,
as well as developing travel guidance policies and
marketing services (Asakura and Iryo, 2007; Xia
et al., 2009). Understanding how tourists move
through time and space has important implications
for infrastructure and transportation development,
product development, destination planning and
the planning of new attractions, as well as manage-
ment of the social, environmental and cultural
impacts of tourism (Lew and Mckercher, 2006).
The Olympic Games are now one of the
worlds largest events, with substantial eco-
nomic, social, political and other benets for
the host nation, region and city (Toohey and
Veal, 2000). The potential benets brought by
the Olympics include newly constructed event
facilities and infrastructure, urban revival, an
enhanced international reputation, increased
tourism, as well as improved public welfare,
additional employment, local business oppor-
tunities and corporate relocation exposure
(Ritchie and Aitken, 1984; Hall, 1987; Kasimati,
2003). In the tourism industry, one frequently
cited benet from the Olympic Games is the po-
tential improvement in awareness and image of
the host city or country as an international tour-
ism destination (Hall, 1987; Ritchie and Smith,
1991; Li and Blake, 2009).
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, which
took place from 8 August to 24 August, were
among the most expensive ever held and had
a signicant inuence on Beijings economic
development, environment, transportation,
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
470
infrastructure and urban renewal (Sands,
2008). The Olympic Games had a major impact
on the tourism industry of Beijing and China.
According to a worldwide survey, about 51
percent of 26 000 people from 26 countries
and regions said they intended to travel to
China after the closing ceremony of the Games
(Xin, 2008). This high number associated with
intention was possibly caused by the positive
image and increased visibility that the Olym-
pics brought to Beijing and China.
Weed (2008) mentioned that the Olympic
Games had an impact on tourism ow and
movements during the Games, especially for
those event-affected people. After the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games, 92 percent of foreign
visitors rated the Olympic venues as very
good or good (Xin, 2008). It seemed that the
Olympic venues in Beijing were becoming
new tourist attractions, and overseas tourists
movement patterns were changing as a result.
Therefore, in order to maximize the tourism
impact of the Olympic Games, it is helpful for
host cities to understand the changes resulting
from the games. In doing so, they can develop
appropriate destination marketing strategies
and product packages to meet the needs of
Olympic-related visitors. Previous literature
showed that the study of intradestination
movement of tourists is limited (Lau and
Mckercher, 2007), let alone the impact of the
Olympic Games on intradestination movement
patterns. Therefore, the purpose of this study
was twofold: to (i) identify the tourism attrac-
tions visited by overseas tourists and the
changes in the pre-, during and post-Beijing
Olympic Games periods and (ii) to examine
the overseas tourist movement patterns in
Beijing and the changes during these Olympic
Games. The results will yield planning implica-
tions for future Olympic Games and their host
cities.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Tourist movement patterns
Tourist activity and spatial patterns therein is
one of the major aspects of tourism geography,
which focuses on explaining spatial patterns
of tourist activities at different scales, such as
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
global, national, regional and local (Pearce,
1995). Various spatiotemporal movements of
tourists can be modeled at either the micro- or
macrolevel (Xia et al., 2009). At a macro level,
tourists move from the generating region to
destination regions or between destination
regions (Leiper, 1979). These movements refer
to interdestination movements. At the micro
level, tourists travel within a single destination
from attraction to attraction or shift from activity
to activity. These are intradestination movements
(Lau and Mckercher, 2007). The spatio-temporal
movements of tourists are a complex process
(Xia et al., 2009) and can be inuenced by many
different factors. These can be divided into three
major categories: human push factors (tourist
role, travel party, personal motivations, prior
visits, etc.), physical pull factors (destination
geomorphology and conguration) and time fac-
tors (length of stay at a destination and total trip
duration) (Lew and Mckercher, 2006; Lau and
Mckercher, 2007).
A variety of studies have attempted to map
the movements of tourists in a variety of ways.
Gunn (1972) was one of the rst to propose
two basic types of trips, the destination trip
and the touring trip. Mings and McHugh
(1992) identied four movement patterns of do-
mestic tourists in Yellowstone National Park in
the United States as direct route, partial orbit,
full orbit and y-drive pattern. Lue et al. (1993)
conceptualized ve different movement patterns
for pleasure vacation trips: single destination,
enroute, base camp, regional tour and trip chain-
ing patterns. Opperman (1995) proposed seven
patterns, including two single destination (S)
patterns and ve multiple destination (M) pat-
terns, to compare tour itineraries of international
tourists from Malaysia. Flogenfeldt (1999) identi-
ed four types of patterns taken by Norwegians:
day trip, resort trip, based holiday and round
trip. Lew and Mckercher (2002) contributed to
the literature by examining the relative location
of a destination within the larger itinerary
pattern through an alternative approach and
classied destinations into ve types: Single Des-
tination, Gateway Destination, Egress Destina-
tion, Touring Destination and Hub Destination.
Hwang et al. (2006) described different multicity
trip patterns by international tourists to the Uni-
ted States that were affected by origin and fa-
miliarity. Ryan and Huimin (2007) conducted a
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns
study of a desired itinerary among students in
New Zealand and China and identied two
ideal itinerary patterns: open-jaw route and
overlaying triangular route. Based on the previ-
ous studies, Lau and Mckercher (2007) summar-
ized the movement patterns into six categories:
single point, base site, stopover, chaining loop,
destination region loop and complex neighbor-
hood. All of the above patterns capture charac-
teristics of various tourists moving from origin
to destinations and among destinations. These
interdestination movement patterns are used
by destinations to develop regional cooperation
and identify marketing areas.
Compared to a large body of interdestination
movement studies, less prior research has been
conducted examining tourist movements within
a destination. Researchers admitted that in-
terdestination movement patterns have some
implications in intradestination movement pat-
terns because both reect tourist movements
but at different scales (Mckercher and Lau,
2008). However, the larger number of attractions
in a destination creates more potential and com-
plicated intradestination movement patterns
than interdestination patterns (Mckercher and
Lau, 2008). Mckercher (2004)s study on Hong
Kong visitors revealed that intradestination
tourist movements are unique and personalized
based on visitors own interests. Some studies
discuss the spatial implications of variations in
attraction site visits (Debbage, 1991; Fennell,
1996).
As a conceptual work, Lew and Mckercher
(2006) modeled the intradestination movement
patterns deductively in two dimensions: four
types of territorial models and three types of
linear path models. Most empirical studies on
intradestination movement patterns have been
conducted in Hong Kong, China. Lau and
Mckercher (2007) found different intradestination
movement patterns between rst-time and repeat
visitors in Hong Kong. Repeat visitors demon-
strate a more varied movement pattern, while
rst-time visitors show a more conned move-
ment pattern. Mckercher et al. (2006) identied
six different patterns of long-haul visitors to
Hong Kong. Three patterns were noted among
main destination visitors: the Wanderer, the Tour
Taker and the Preplanner, while three different
patterns were identied among stopover or
secondary destination visitors: the Explorer, the
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
471
Uncommitted and the Intimidated. Mckercher
and Lau (2008) examined the daily movements
of the fully independent pleasure tourists in
Hong Kong and identied 78 discrete movement
patterns and 11 movement styles. They identied
six factors that inuenced tourist intradestination
movement patterns: territoriality, the number of
journeys made per day, the number of stops
made per journey, participation in a commercial
day tour, participation in extra-destination travel
and observed patterns of multistop journeys.
Measurement of movement patterns
A variety of techniques have been applied in the
observation of tourist movements by different
scholars. The traditional tracking techniques
are based on observations and interviews that
require the researcher to follow an individual
tourist and record his or her movements
(Dumont et al., 2004). Participants are also asked
to trace or retrace their spatial movements on a
cartographic map using self-administered ques-
tionnaires (Fennell, 1996; Wang and Manning,
1999). Recently, new tracking techniques, such
as global positioning system (GPS) (Draijer
et al., 2000; Arrowsmith et al., 2005), geographic
information system (GIS) (Lau and Mckercher,
2007), timing systems (OConnor et al., 2005),
camera-based systems (Haritaoglu et al., 1998),
personal digital assistants (PDAs) tracking
devices (Hadley et al., 2003) and mobile commu-
nication tracking (Asakura and Hato, 2004)
have been utilized to record movement in-
formation of tourists. In addition, a variety of
methodological techniques, such as data min-
ing, including expectation maximization (EM)
clustering (Wang et al., 2006), and statistical
methods, such as logistic-regression and log-
linear models (Xia et al., 2010), cluster analysis
(Asakura and Iryo, 2007), network analysis
(Hwang et al., 2006) and Markov chains (Tobler,
1997; Xia et al., 2009), have been employed to
analyze the tourist tracking data in an attempt
to identify spatio-temporal movement patterns.
Although new technologies are emerging,
which help the measurement and analysis of
movement patterns, the very traditional tech-
nique of the trip diary (travel diary) is still the
most popular instrument utilized in an attempt
to collect specic data of tourists movements,
and it is primarily used in most intradestination
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
472
movement studies (Mckercher et al., 2006; Lau
and Mckercher, 2007; Mckercher and Lau,
2008). GIS software is the common data analysis
tool that can be used to map diary data and iden-
tify movement patterns (Lau and Mckercher,
2007; Mckercher and Lau, 2008).
Social network analysis in tourism context
Social network analysis is a method used to
map and measure relationships and ows
between people, groups, organizations, and
other connected information/knowledge en-
tities (Wasserman and Faust, 1994). It provides
both a visual and a mathematical analysis of
human relationships. Based on graph theory,
a social network represents entities and their
relations as nodes and links, which form a
network (Scott, 1991). The process focuses on
the relationship between the actors and the
pattern of interactions rather than the at-
tributes of isolated individual actors (Scott
et al., 2008). Social network analysis is a useful
approach used to describe and interpret
knowledge network, network clustering and
research subject evolutions (Scott, 1991).
Over the last decade, social network ana-
lysis has been introduced into tourism, and
hospitality research and numerous applica-
tions have been applied to different topics
(Novelli et al., 2006). Structural characteristics
of publicprivate organizational relationships
have been studied, and the collaboration and
coordination of organizations were suggested
for future scholarship (Pavlovich, 2003; Shih,
2006; Wang and Xiang, 2007; Romeiro and
Costa, 2010). Combining stakeholder theory
with social network analysis, the interconnect-
edness of diverse stakeholders was examined
through a network lens, and the key members
and their structural position were identied
(Scott and Cooper, 2007; Timur and Getz,
2008). Knowledge networks were explored
and visually represented using social network
analysis to expand the understanding of the
structure and constitution of the tourism and
hospitality eld not only in collaboration
among the researchers (Hu and Racherla,
2008) but also with respect to tourism themes
and trends (Benckendorff, 2009).
When applied in studies on tourist movement
patterns, social network analysis has the same
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
function as GIS software to visualize trip diary
data. However, the focus of social network ana-
lysis is not geographic movement as GIS would
suggest but rather the attractions themselves
and the relationships in and among them.
Ultimately, this research may provide more
helpful implications for destination marketers.
METHODOLOGY
Study design
With the increasing popularity of the Internet,
more and more travelers are now using the
technology to obtain travel information, share
travel experiences, view photographs, or pur-
chase travel-related products (Chung and
Buhalis, 2008). One of the signicant trends of
the Internet is the growing of user-generated
content sites, which are websites for people to
share their experiences and ideas (Green,
2007). Nowadays, more and more people pub-
lish their thoughts online or read online reviews
and the user-generated content clearly affects
travelers decisions (OConnor, 2010). With the
increasing importance of these user-generated
content sites, hospitality researchers begin
designing studies using user-generated data
(OConnor, 2010; Stringam and Gerdes, 2010).
This study was also designed to collect user-
generated data to attain tourists itineraries
from diaries they posted after their trip. Beijing,
the capital of China and host city of the 2008
Olympic Games, has diverse natural and cul-
tural attractions. In 2008, Beijing received 3.36
million overseas tourists (Beijing Tourism Ad-
ministration, 2009) and was valued as the fa-
vorite tourism city to world tourists (Beijing
became, 2008). The purpose of the study is
to map and compare movement patterns of
overseas tourists in Beijing during the Olympic
Games. In the study, trip diaries posted from
January 2001 to April 2009 were collected and
coded. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games were
held from 8 August to 24 August. The data were
divided into three groups. This was done in an
attempt to track changes of movement patterns.
The three periods are pre-Beijing Olympic Games
period (before August 2007), during Beijing
Olympic Games period (from August 2007 to
September 2009) and post-Beijing Olympic
Games period (from October 2008 to April 2009).
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns 473

Data collection types of unobtrusive data (Berg, 2001), it was

select in this study to analyze words from
The original data were collected from 500 trip
dairies. For each dairy, tourist attractions vis-
diaries on six different websites from January
ited were chronologically coded. However,
2001 to April 2009, including 350 English diar-
because of the anonymity of the forum, the
ies posted by international tourists and 150
demographic information of tourists could
Chinese diaries posted by tourists from Hong
not be obtained. Content analysis gave a de-
Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The six websites
scriptive overview of tourist attractions visited
used are listed as follows:
by overseas tourists during the study period
and the main alterations associated with the
(1) www.travelpod.com, the rst international
tourist attractions among three periods.
online travel blog website;
Second, social network analysis software
(2) www.travelblog.org, one of the most popu-
NetDraw was used to map the tourist move-
lar international travel blog website;
ments in and among the attractions (itineraries).
(3) www.yahoo.com.hk, the biggest portal web-
First, three periodical attraction-by-attraction
site in Hong Kong and Macau;
data matrixes were built after the content anal-
(4) discuss.com.hk, the most famous Web
ysis. The value in the ijth cell of this matrix indi-
forum in Hong Kong;
cated how many times tourists owed (moved)
(5) www.yahoo.com.tw, one of the biggest por-
from the ith attraction to the jth attraction. For
tal websites in Taiwan; and
example, suppose there were three tourist attrac-
(6) www.yam.com, one of the biggest portal
tions named A, B and C. Three people traveled
websites in Taiwan.
from A to B, ve people traveled from B to C,
two people traveled from C to A and one person
Tourists who wrote diaries on these websites
traveled from B to A (see Figure 1). As a result of
were mostly Free Independent Traveler (FIT)
the movements, we can generate a data matrix
travelers, as a result their movement patterns
(Figure 1). Then, three data matrixes were input
in Beijing were of their free will. The numbers
into NetDraw, and three networks were mapped.
of trip diaries collected in pre-, during and
In addition, longitudinal structural changes of
post-Beijing Olympic Games periods (before
the network were also examined.
August 2007, from August 2007 to September
Finally, after simplifying the three networks,
2009 and from October 2008 to April 2009)
main tourist movement patterns were identi-
were 160, 177 and 163 respectively.
ed from the network, and the changes of
Data analysis movement patterns were investigated.
The data analysis utilized two main meth-
FINDINGS
odological approaches and consisted of three
major steps. First, content analysis was used
Tourist attractions
to analyze the original data and construct
tourists itineraries. Content analysis is a sys- The results of the content analysis show that
tematic method to identify patterns, themes, there were total 197 attractions in Beijing visited
biases and meanings through examining a by 500 overseas tourists within the study period.
particular body of material (Berg, 2001). Be- The number of total trips to all attractions in
cause content analysis is applicable to various Beijing was 4972, and the average number of

Figure 1. Example of tourist ow and attraction-by-attraction data matrix.

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
474
attractions visited per capita was ten. Fifteen
attractions were visited on more than 100 of the
trips, and the most frequently visited attraction
was Tiananmen Square, which logged 513 trips.
Seventy one attractions only had only one trip.
The main tourist attractions and the num-
bers of visitors are displayed in Table 1. The
tourist attractions visited changed during the
hosting of the Olympic Games. In the time
leading up to the Olympic Games (before
August 2007), the number of attractions vis-
ited and the total trips were 125 and 1437 re-
spectively. During this period, 23 attractions
had more than 14 trips. During the Beijing
Olympic Games (from August 2007 to Septem-
ber 2009), the number of attractions visited
and the total trips were 123 and 1679 respect-
ively. During the games, 29 attractions had
more than 14 trips. In the post-Olympic
Games period (from October 2008 to April
2009), the number of attractions visited and
total trips were 127 and 1856 respectively.
During this period, 33 attractions had more
than 14 trips.
The results also revealed some important
information relative to some of the tourist
attractions visited during the Beijing Olympic
Games period. First, the number of main tour-
ism attractions visited by overseas tourists
increased. Dividing the total trips in each
period by the number of visitors, we found that
the number of attractions visited per capita also
increased. It shows that more attractions in Bei-
jing were visited because of the exposure pro-
vided by the Olympic Games. Tourists are
willing to visit not only traditional attractions
in Beijing, such as the Tiananmen Square, The
Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The
Great Wall but also new attractions, particu-
larly, the Olympic venues developed for the
Olympic period.
Second, famous traditional attractions re-
mained as the most popular ones to overseas
tourists. As we all know, Beijing is famous
for its six traditional attractions: Tiananmen
Square, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall,
The Summer Palace, Tiantan Park and The
Ming Tombs. These traditional attractions have
worldwide appeal and are considered as part
of the image or brand one might associate with
Beijing tourism. The results revealed that these
traditional attractions continued to attract the
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
most number of visitors in the study period.
Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and
The Great Wall (including all parts) were the
most visited attractions in all three periods.
The Summer Palace, Tiantan Park and The
Ming Tombs also ranked among the 10 most
visited attractions.
Third, Olympic attractions aroused great
interest by overseas tourists. Olympic attrac-
tions, such as Olympic Green, Birds Nest (Beijing
National Stadium), Water Cube (National
Aquatics Centre), and other Olympic venues
were developed for the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games. The earliest trip diary that mentioned
some of the aforementioned Olympic attrac-
tions was in March 2006, when Olympic Green
was still under construction. With the opening
of the Olympic Games, more and more
overseas tourists were attracted to visiting
sporting venues. The number of tourists visit-
ing Olympic attractions rose in the three peri-
ods, from 14 to 90 to 185 respectively. In the
post-Olympic period, the total number of
overseas tourists visiting Olympic Green, Birds
Nest and Water Cube even exceeded that of
Tiananmen Square. The Olympic venues be-
come not only venues for competition but also
new attractions that appealed to tourists.
Finally, new attractions are burgeoning. Be-
sides Olympic venues, there are many other
new attractions which that an increasing num-
ber of visitors during the study period. Some
of the areas and nonsporting venues that drew
additional support included Shichahai Lake
(Three Rear Lakes), Donghuamen Night Mar-
ket, Qianmen Dazhalan Street, Bell and Drum
Towers, South Luogu Lane, The National Cen-
ter for the Performing Arts, 798 Art Zone and
Yandai Street. These attractions become more
popular because they have been supported
and developed by the Beijing Municipal Gov-
ernment in order to leverage the tourism im-
pact of the Olympic Games.
Tourist movement network
The software NetDraw was used to map itiner-
aries of overseas tourists. Three periodical net-
works were constructed (see Figures 24) to
show tourist movement networks in three dif-
ferent periods. The nodes in the network stood
for attractions with more than four trips in the
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
 Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns

Table 1. Tourist attractions and overseas visitor volume
Before Aug. 2007 Aug. 2007 Sep. 2008 Oct. 2008 Apr. 2009
Attraction Trip Attraction Trip Attraction Trip
Tiananmen Square 169 Tiananmen Square 183 Tiananmen Square 161
Forbidden City 149 Forbidden City 160 Forbidden City 150
Summer Palace 97 Summer Palace 108 Olympic Green 125
Tiantan Park 85 Tiantan Park 95 Summer Palace 104
Wangfujin Street 71 Olympic Green 90 Wangfujin Street 99
Simatai Great Wall 50 Wangfujin Street 85 Tiantan Park 97
Xiushui Street 46 Xiushui Street 51 Shichahai Lake 78
Ming Tombs 44 Ming Tombs 49 Donghuamen Night Market 59
Hutong 42 Shichahai Lake 49 Ming Tombs 59
Lama Temple 38 Badalin Great Wall 46 Hutong 47
Jingshan Park 36 Simatai Great Wall 43 Badalin Great Wall 43
Badalin Great Wall 34 Jingshan Park 41 QianmenDazhalan Street 42
Jinshanlin Great Wall 32 Hutong 40 Birds Nest 39
Shichahai Lake 28 Lama Temple 36 Juyongguan Great Wall 38
Mutianyu Great Wall 27 Beihai Park 33 Jingshan Park 37
Beihai Park 26 Jinshanlin Great Wall 32 Xiushui Street 36
Donghuamen Night Market 23 Mutianyu Great Wall 32 South Luogu Lane 33
Chairman Mao Memorial 22 Donghuamen Night Market 29 Lama Temple 33
Peking University 19 Hongqiao Market 27 National Center for Performing Arts 31
Wild Great Wall 17 Bell and Drum Towers 26 Simatai Great Wall 28
Acrobatics Show 17 Wild Great Wall 23 Mutianyu Great Wall 23
Juyongguan Great Wall 16 QianmenDazhalan Street 21 Bell and Drum Towers 22
Hongqiao Market 15 Beijing Zoo 19 Beihai Park 21
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)

Birds Nest 19 Global Trade Mansion 21

Acrobatics Show 19 Water Cube 21
Chairman Mao Memorial 17 798 Art District 20
National Center for Performing Arts 15 Prince Gongs Palace 20
Juyongguan Great Wall 15 Sanlitun Bar Street 20
South Luogu Lane 15 Jinshanlin Great Wall 19
Deshengmen Watchtower 17
DOI: 10.1002/jtr

Hongqiao Market 17
Wild Great Wall 16
Yandai Street 16

475
476 X. Y. Leung et al.

Figure 2. Overseas tourists movement network in Beijing (before August 2007).

Figure 3. Overseas tourists movement network in Beijing (August 2007September 2008).

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns
Figure 4. Overseas tourists movement network in Beijing (October 2008April 2009).
study period. The links referred to tourist ow
(movements) between the attractions. The arrows
of the links showed the direction of tourist ow.
The width of the links reected the numbers of
tourists in each tourist ow.
The results show that The Forbidden City and
Tiananmen Square always sat in the center of
the three networks and attracted the largest
number of tourists resulting in the greatest ow.
Olympic Green and The Birds Nest appeared in
the second stage, during the Olympic period,
and their importance was strengthened in the
third stage, the post-Olympic period. In a longi-
tudinal view, the tourist movement network
developed from a one-center network in the
pre-Olympic period to a several-center network
in the post-Olympic period. Three subcenters of
tourist ow came into being in the post-Olympic
period excluding the main center of The Forbid-
den City and the Tiananmen Square area. The
areas that drew the most attention were the
Olympic Green area, around Yandai Street (in-
cluding Hutong, Shichahai Lake, Bell and Drum
Towers and South Luogu Lane) and around
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
477
Wangfujin Street and the Donghuamen Night
Market area (see Figure 4). Two trends were
revealed from the information as well, and this
included the diversity of tourist attractions visited
and the quantity visiting most popular areas pre-
viously. A more detailed examination on tourism
movement changes will be discussed below.
Table 2 shows a series of longitudinal net-
work measures for the above three networks.
Number of nodes and number of ties are basic
demographic measures for networks. Among
the three periods, the number of nodes did
not change much, but the number of ties went
up signicantly in the post-Olympic period.
This suggests that more tourists came to Beijing
and visited almost the same attractions. This
also demonstrates the positive impact of the
Olympic Games on the Beijing tourism indus-
try in terms of tourist ow.
Network density is dened as the proportion
of all ties that are present in the network graph
(Scott, 1991). Therefore, the higher network den-
sity, the more the attractions are connected to each
other. The densities of three periodical networks
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
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478
Table 2. Longitudinal movement network measures
Time Period Before Aug. 2007
No. of Nodes 43
No. of Ties 261
Two-way Ties 50
One-way Ties 211
Network Density 0.145
Betwn. Central Index 61.4%
were pretty low (under 0.2), which suggests great
potential to develop future variation in tourism it-
ineraries. The densities of the during-Olympic
and post-Olympic networks were higher than
that of the pre-Olympic network, which implies
that tourists visited more attractions in one trip.
The connected itineraries could be an indication
of destination development under the impact of
the Olympic Games.
Centralization refers to the extent to which a
network revolves around a single or a number
of nodes. Freeman (1979) proposed the three
most widely used centrality measures as degree,
closeness and betweenness. In social network
analysis, node betweenness centrality is an im-
portant measure for centralization. Betweenness
centrality considers a node as being in a favored
position to the extent that the node falls on the
geodesic paths between other pairs of nodes in
the network, that is, the greater the nodes that
depend on the node i to make connections with
other nodes, the greater betweenness centrality
i has. Betweenness centralization measures the
betweenness of the entire network by calculating
the ratio of actual sum of betweenness centrality
for each nodes to the maximum possible sum
(Freeman, 1979). In a network, if a single or a
number of nodes are more central than the rest,
the network is more hierarchical, and the between-
ness centralization score is high (Freeman, 1979).
The betweenness centralization scores of three
periodical networks were all high (>60%), show-
ing that there was a substantial degree of concen-
tration among tourist attractions. In other words,
most overseas tourists were more likely to visit cer-
tain attractions, which were represented as the
central nodes of the network. The centralization
score went down from the during-Olympic to
the post-Olympic period, indicating a growing
diversication of tourist attractions in the post-
Olympic period.
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
Aug. 2007Sep. 2008 Oct. 2008Apr. 2009
41 47
295 385
71 80
224 305
0.180 0.178
70.9% 66.5%
Main tourist movement patterns
In order to simplify the three periodical networks
and to show clear tourist movement patterns, this
study identied tourism itineraries that included
ve or more tourists as main tourist movement
patterns. The reduced periodical networks that
only showed main tourist movement patterns
were mapped as Figures 57. The results indi-
cated that there was an increasing trend in the
number of main tourism movement patterns in
Beijing. The tourism attractions affecting tourism
movement patterns and total trips were also in-
creasing. In the pre-Beijing Olympic Games
period (before August 2007), the numbers of
main tourism movement patterns was 22, involv-
ing 19 tourism attractions and 227 trips. During
the Beijing Olympic Games period (from August
2007 to September 2009), the numbers of main
tourism movement patterns was 28, involving
22 tourism attractions and 365 trips. In the post-
Beijing Olympic Games period (from October
2008 to April 2009), the numbers of main tourism
movement patterns was 43, involving 26 tourism
attractions and 460 trips.
The results also showed that tourism move-
ment patterns in Beijing changed because of
the impact of the Olympic Games. In the pre-
Beijing Olympic Games period (see Figure 4),
main tourism movement patterns revealed trad-
itional itineraries, involving Tiananmen Square,
The Forbidden City, Tiantan Park, Wangfujin
Street, The Summer Palace, Tsinghua and Peking
University, the Ming Tombs and The Great Wall.
During the Beijing Olympic Games period (see
Figure 5), some new tourism itineraries emerged,
which included the Olympic Green area, from
Shichahai Lake to Bell and Drum Towers and
from Tiantan Park to Hongqiao Market. The
connections between The Summer Palace and
Tsinghua and Peking University decreased, while
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns 479

Figure 5. Overseas tourists movement patterns in Beijing (before August 2007).

the connections between The Summer Palace the connectedness around the Olympic Green
and Olympic Green strengthened. In the post- area was strengthened, and the connectedness
Beijing Olympic Games period (see Figure 6), from Shichahai Lake to Bell and Drum Towers

Figure 6. Overseas tourists movement patterns in Beijing (August 2007September 2008).

Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
480
Figure 7. Overseas tourists movement patterns in Beijing (October 2008April 2009).
extended to South Luogu Lane and Yandai
Street. In addition, the connectedness around
southern Tiananmen to The Forbidden City
area strengthened, while that around northern
area weakened.
Clearly, the main visiting areas are the central
city areas, which consist of the Dongcheng,
Xicheng, Xuanwu and Chongwen Districts.
Some suburban areas that were frequently vis-
ited included the Haidian and Chaoyang Dis-
tricts. The most visited rural areas were those
where the Great Wall is located. During the
study period, the central city area attracted the
majority of overseas tourists (more than 70%).
The Chaoyang District, the area where most of
the Olympic attractions are located, received
an increasing number of tourists. In rural areas,
the regions where the Ming Tombs and The
Great Wall are located became more popular
than the other areas.
IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Using content analysis and social network ana-
lysis, the study analyzed the most visited tourism
attractions and the main tourism movement pat-
terns in Beijing during three distinct periods,
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
based on data collected from 500 trip diaries of
overseas visitors. The study has several import-
ant ndings. First, the study found that the num-
bers of main tourist attractions, attractions visited
per capita, and main tourism movement patterns
have all increased over the course of the study
period. Second, the study examined the patterns
of change in the tourist attractions themselves.
Famous traditional attractions are still the most
sought-after attractions, but Olympic-related
venues have also become must-go places for
overseas tourists. Third, the study revealed that
substantial tourist movement patterns extended
from traditional attractions in the pre-Olympic
period to the Olympic area to other new sub-
centers in the post-Olympic period. Fourth, the
study identied the central city area in Beijing as
the core visiting area. The main visiting area
expands along the Central Axis of Beijing under
the impact of the Olympic attractions and other
newly developed attractions.
This study provided some theoretical contri-
butions. As one of the rst attempts to use so-
cial network analysis to examine tourist ow
and tourist movement, this study offers an-
other applicable method to understand these
patterns and changes besides commonly used
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
A Social Network Analysis of Tourist Movement Patterns
statistical methods. In this context, tourist
movement networks and social network ana-
lysis are visualized and easy to understand. In
addition, this study is based on user-generated
content instead of regular survey methods. As
Hwang et al. (2006) mentioned, the emergence
of social network-based Internet systems has
and will continue to reshape the overall struc-
ture of travel and make travel decisions more
personalized. This study takes advantage of
this new media to touch upon personalized
travel itineraries. From this point of view, this
study contributes to and extends the literature
by adding a new method and a new viewpoint
to deliberately understand tourist movement
patterns.
From a practical perspective, Moreira (2009)
insists that the Olympic Games also have high
negative impact potential. The Olympic Games
not only bring tourism opportunities but also
tremendous challenges associated with tourism
marketing and management to host cities. In
order to leverage on the impact of Olympic
tourism and to maximize tourism economi-
cally, it is important for destination marketers
and managers to understand tourist movement
patterns and the accompanying changes dur-
ing the games. The above ndings provide
important insights regarding host cities desti-
nation product development and marketing
under the impact of a mega event such as the
Olympic Games.
First, the results revealed the impact of the
Olympic Games to the tourism industry of the
host city. More attractions in Beijing were
visited with more tourism ows in the post-
Olympic period than in the pre-Olympic
period. This nding is consistent with Ritchie
and Smith (1991)s study, which found that
the hosting of the Olympic Games increases
the host citys international awareness dramat-
ically and attracts large numbers of visitors.
The increasing number of overseas tourists
and attractions visited during the Olympic
period in this study indicates that the Olympics
are a great boost to the tourism industry of host
city. Similarly, Koldowski and Yoo (2006) pre-
dicted the 2008 Olympic Games as one of the
seven primary forces to positively affect the Asia
Pacic tourism industry over the next decade.
More overseas tourists are attracted by the Olym-
pic Games and the Olympic venues themselves
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
481
become new and hot tourist attractions. The
Olympic Games clearly make host cities more
attractive.
Second, although Beijing has plenty of tour-
ism attractions, overseas tourists are only in-
terested in a handful of sites. As Shen (2003)
stated, foreign visitors in China tend to go to
the most popular tourist destinations. These
attractions are central to the three tourist move-
ment networks and are frequently visited by
most of the overseas tourists. These attractions
are divided into two categories: those trad-
itional ones that have high reputation and
brand awareness and those new ones that are
developed for Olympic purposes. Host cities
should emphasize both famous traditional
attractions while developing new Olympic
attractions in order to take full advantage of
its Olympic opportunity.
Third, the variety of tourist attractions an ob-
vious trend indicated by the longitudinal net-
work analysis. Not only Olympic attractions
but other new attractions have been developed
in Beijing in order to garner attention from tour-
ists. All these new attractions generate tourist
ows and promote the overall Beijing tourism
industry. It is suggested that host cities develop
appropriate new attractions aside from Olympic
venues based on the needs of overseas tourists.
The variety of attractions will prolong tourists
length-of-stay and provide more attractions to
visit. A multitude of options will also change
tourist movement patterns.
Fourth, tourism movement patterns changed
a lot under the impact of the Olympic Games
during the study period. The empirical ndings
of the study provided convincing evidence to
support Weed (2008)s study on Olympic
event-affected tourist ows. The study not only
testies that during Olympic periods, overseas
tourists movement patterns do change and
tourist attractions they visit also change but also
species what these changes are and how these
changes impact the whole tourism industry.
Tourists tend to move from traditional attrac-
tions to Olympic attractions and to other new
developing attractions. Host cities should under-
stand these changes within tourist movement
patterns and take advantage of it. The location
of new developing attractions might be chosen
near the Olympic attractions or traditional
attractions in order to help tourists connect them
Int. J. Tourism Res. 14, 469484 (2012)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr
482
conveniently as part of their itinerary. Appropri-
ate transportation support should be provided to
facilitate these changes. New tourist brochures
should be provided with the introduction of
new attractions and new itineraries.
Finally, the expansion of main visiting area is
the other obvious trend indicated by the longi-
tudinal network analysis. The Olympic Games
give tourists more opportunities to explore
what host cities have to offer. Because new
attractions are scattered throughout the host
city, more areas will be visited by tourists. More
old attractions, which become overlooked by
tourists, get new chances to be included as part
of their itineraries if host cities develop new and
compelling attractions around these old ones.
The expansion of the main visiting area will re-
sult in tourists longer stays and more spending
that improves the whole tourism industry.
LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH
When interpreting the study results, the audi-
ence is advised to note the following observa-
tions. First, this study is based on the data of
500 trip diaries collected from six websites.
People who wrote diaries on those websites
may not be representative of the whole overseas
tourist population, so the tourist movement pat-
terns and tourist attractions found in the study
may not accurately reect the true patterns and
attractions. Also, this study was conducted in
Beijing. The unique city characteristics may have
an impact on the overseas tourist population.
Clearly, the results of the study are not
generalizable and applicable to other cities. Sec-
ond, the impact of the tour agency to the tourist
movement patterns is not addressed. In this
study, we could not distinguish FIT travelers
from package tourists when selecting trip diar-
ies. If some or many of the diaries we selected
were written by package tourists, then the
movement patterns found in the study may be
inuenced by the tour operators arrangements.
Third, data completeness of trip diaries is also a
limitation of this study. The authors have no con-
trol on whether the trip diaries were complete,
whether the diaries included all the stops the
tourists made in Beijing. The results based on
this kind of data might be somewhat mislead-
ing. Last, due to the data constraints, the study
ignores the demographic characteristics of the
Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
X. Y. Leung et al.
overseas tourists, which may inuence their
tourist movement patterns. For example, the na-
tional origin of tourists may to relate to their
length of stay and their attraction preferences.
In addition, length of stay may affect tourists
travel activities. Future studies are necessary to
address these issues.
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