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Geographical And Structural Changes In The Global Tourism Network Due To Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • George TSOULIAS

    (Department of Regional and Economic Development, School of Applied Economics and Social Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, Amfissa, Greece)

  • Dimitrios TSIOTAS

    (Department of Regional and Economic Development, School of Applied Economics and Social Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, Amfissa, Greece.)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the tourism economy, causing a severe global shock and effects on tourism mobility unevenly geographically distributed across regions. This paper detects changes in the global tourism flows network (GTN) in the period 2018-2020 due to COVID-19 and explains the GTN dynamics from a network science perspective. The analysis reveals the effect of underlying economic geography, as the pandemic introduced a new social distancing friction that induced centrifugal forces to the tourism network. The network’s topological pattern was described by small-world network characteristics before the pandemic outbreak, while during the pandemic there was a statistically significant reshape into more lattice-like characteristics accompanied by peripheral markets expansion of local hierarchy. The findings also demonstrate a reduction in the number of tourism flows and spatial connectivity, a simplification of the macroeconomic travel behavior, and a resilient performance of the main tourism hubs shaping and a distinctive core-periphery network structure. Overall, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the response of tourism mobility to the pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • George TSOULIAS & Dimitrios TSIOTAS, 2024. "Geographical And Structural Changes In The Global Tourism Network Due To Covid-19," Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(2), pages 28-54, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:rom:terumm:v:19:y:2024:i:2:p:28-54
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    References listed on IDEAS

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