Transformations  in
Business & Economics

DECONSTRUCTING THE TOURISM COOPERATION NETWORK IN THE NORTHEAST ASIA REGION: CHARACTERISTICS AND ATTURIBUTES²
Jie Yin, Yun Cheng, Ke Wang

ABSTRACT. The characteristics and influencing factors of the tourism cooperation network in the Northeast Asia region must be explored to further promote and strengthen tourism cooperation in this area. In this study, tourism cooperation ties in the Northeast Asia region is measured from the network perspective through a modified gravity model based on tourism development data during 2000-2018. The tourism cooperation network in the Northeast Asia region was constructed, its characteristics and development trend were investigated by using social network analysis, and its influencing factors were tested on the basis of the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP). Results show that improved tourism cooperation ties in Northeast Asia region stabilizes the cooperation structure. Tourism cooperation is developing toward normalization and stability. China is the "leader," "intermediary," and "an independent party" in this network. Many complicated factors, such as differences in income, safety, governance, and consumption level, influence tourism cooperation. These influencing factors can cause negative effects on the tourism cooperation network, whereas differences in technological environment and language can bring positive effects. Moreover, the effects of institutional difference change from being a negative constraint to a positive effect.

KEYWORDS:  tourism cooperation network, cooperation characteristics, influencing factors, QAP analysis, Northeast Asia region.

JEL classification:  F23, F40, P25, Q40, R11.

² Acknowledgement:  This study was supported by Youth Project of the National Social Science Found of China (Project No. 20CGL022).