GUO Jing, WANG De, HUANG Qinshi, CHEN Junnan

Keywords： Social Media; Virtual-Physical Space Interaction; Internet-famous Space; Mobile Signaling Data; Xiaohongshu Check-in; Tourism Spatiotemporal Behavior

Abstract：

Social media has become a crucial information source for tourists to learn about and select travel destinations. While the “internet celebrity” effect strengthens tourists’ willingness to travel, it also poses new challenges for urban management. This paper, adopting a perspective of virtual-physical space interaction, utilizes mobile signaling data and Xiaohongshu check-in data to identify the spatial distribution patterns of internet-famous destinations in Shanghai. It further explores the dynamic evolution of tourists’ behavioral chains under the influence of social media and employs a fixed-effects model to explain the mechanisms of how social media affects tourism behavior. The findings indicate that: (1) the spatial distribution of Shanghai’s internet-famous check-in locations exhibits a significant core-periphery structure, highly consistent with the city’s functional zoning, and different types of locations show distinct growth patterns; (2) the virtual network popularity of social media significantly influences tourist behavior, with the hotspot recommendation effect shifting tourists’ location preferences from traditional single-site sightseeing toward composite commercial and consumption spaces; (3) results from the fixed-effects model suggest that online popularity is a core factor shaping tourist behavior, and that the demand for tourism-related services shows a differentiated pattern between traditional and emerging tourism models. Furthermore, higher social media engagement tends to promote high-frequency, short-duration check-in behaviors. Overall, this paper reveals the mechanisms of virtual-physical space interaction in urban tourism spatiotemporal behavior driven by social media, providing valuable decision-making references for urban planning and tourism management.

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