| Night tourism activates urban space,provides new consumption options for tourists,and plays positive role in deepening structural reform on the supply side of tourism,driving the development of related industries and promoting the image of tourist destinations.Local governments attach importance to the development of night tourism and have given greater policy support,but still at a primary stage and lacks the guidance of corresponding theoretical knowledge.Many scholars have conducted research on the concept of night tourism,the current situation countermeasures and products,but few studies have addressed the spatial-temporal behavioural characteristics of night tourists and the influencing factors behind them.As one of the five major international consumption center cities cultivated and built in China,Chongqing has a prominent role in demonstrating and driving the night economy,and the development of night tourism has certain typicality and representativeness.This study selects Chongqing metropolitan area as a case site,and crawls the night tour geotagged photos of Chongqing metropolitan area from 2013-2022 from the Mafengwo Travel website.By using mathematical statistics,density clustering,GIS spatial analysis and social network analysis,we analyse the multi-scale temporal behavioural characteristics of night tourists,and the spatial behavioural characteristics of tourists’ spatial distribution,trajectory patterns and tourism flow networks,then,from two levels,namely tourist and destination to explore influencing factors,the main conclusions are as follows:(1)The development of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area from 2013 to 2022 shows fluctuating characteristics.In the past three years,the development process of Chongqing metropolitan area was hindered by the COVID-2019 pandemic,and the spatial behavior of tourists has changed,but with the liberalization of policies,night tourism gradually recovered.The seasonal characteristics of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area are obvious,with frequent night tourism activities in spring and autumn and low frequency in summer and winter,April-May and October-November are the peak seasons.In addition,the night tourism activities have a strong "long holiday effect" and "weekend effect",18:00-21:00 is the "golden 4 hours" of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area.However,night tourists in Chongqing metropolitan area are mainly "short and medium-term tourists",with 78.46% of night tourists spending less than 5 days.(2)The spatial distribution of night tourists in Chongqing metropolitan area shows the characteristics of "central concentration and scattered around",with tourists concentrated in the Yuzhong Peninsula and the surrounding two river basin areas.The clustering by DBSCAN algorithm reveals that there are 13 large-scale night tour areas of interest(AOI)in Chongqing metropolitan area,which are: Jiefangbei-Hongyadong Area,Nanbin Road Area,Nanshan Area,Jiangbeizui Central Business District,Guanyinqiao Area,Eling-Liziba Area,Ciqikou Area,Jiangbei Airport Area,Huangjueping Area,Sanxia Square Area,Lianglukou Area,Chongqing North Station Area and Nanping Road Area.The Jiefangbei Hongyadong Area was formed the earliest and has the highest tourism fever,but with the enhancement of functions such as night viewing,leisure and entertainment and emerging cultural experiences,the Nanbin Road Area,Jiangbeizui Central Business District,Nanshan Area,Guanyinqiao Area,and Eling-Liziba Area are gradually gaining in ferver.The formation of night tour AOI is closely related to factors such as the popularity of regional tourist attractions,the state of commercial agglomeration,night viewing points,transportation hub locations,and important cultural sites.2013-2022 Chongqing metropolitan area night tour AOI experienced a process of growth to shrinkage in quantity,expansion to contraction in space,and a shift of the regional tourism centre from the northeast to the southwest.However,the night tourism centre remains within the Yuzhong District.(3)Night tourists in Chongqing metropolitan area are generally active in 1 or 2 night tour AOI,and the number of night tourism nodes taken by most tourists in one travel activity is no more than 4.Night tour trajectory paths show 3 types of single-node trajectories,intra-regional trajectories and inter-regional trajectories.Single-node trajectories are predominant,with a tendency to visit high-profile night tourism nodes;intra-regional trajectories are characterized by core-edge diffusion,with tourists taking the Hongyadong and Jiefangbei as the core and diffusing to Chaotianmen Square,Yangtze River Cableway,Huguang guild hall,Daijiaxiang,Baixiang Street and other attractions;inter-regional trajectory mainly occurs between spatially adjacent and functionally complementary areas.The construction of tourism flow networks for inter-regional trajectories reveals that night tour AOI in Chongqing metropolitan area are less spatially connected.Each night tour AOI is in a different position in the inter-regional tourism network,with the Jiefangbei Hongyadong area being the center of the network,assuming the extremely important functions of tourist gathering,diffusion,transit and connectivity,and having an extremely strong dominant role over other hot areas.Nanbin Road Area and Jiangbeizui Central Business District are in the core area of the inter-regional tourism flow network,while other 10 areas are still at the edge.(4)The spatial-temporal behavior of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area is mainly influenced by the work and leisure system,physiological constraints and traditional concepts,destination climatic conditions,operating hours of tourism service facilities,tourist attribute characteristics,destination tourism resource endowment,locational proximity,tourism traffic conditions and the level of tourism service and reception facilities.The work and leisure system and destination climatic conditions mainly affect the off-peak season and intra-weekly distribution characteristics of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area,and the operating hours of tourism service facilities,physiological constraints and traditional perceptions limit the active time of tourists to some extent.Tourist attribute characteristics have an impact on both seasonal characteristics and night active time of night tourism in Chongqing metropolitan area.Areas with abundant night tourism resources,convenient transportation and perfect tourism service and reception facilities are prone to night tourism activities,and tourists’ spatial movement mainly occurs between hot areas or nodes with adjacent location,high accessibility and complementary functions.Based on the above research results,this paper suggests that the government of Chongqing metropolitan area should optimize and enhance the development of night tourism by developing four-season tourism products,improving night tourism service support,optimizing the spatial layout of night tourism,strengthening inter-regional interconnection and precise marketing and promotion. |
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