Building tourism networks through tourist mobility

This article aims to define tourism networks analyzing tourist mobility between destinations. The study adopts network analysismethods, testing a data processing strategy that combines descriptive measurements and clustering tools. A segmentationapproach has been employed to investigate differences or similarities between the trip-related attributes of tourists withinnetworks. Data are from a sampling survey carried out on tourists’ visit in Sicily. The results show that the tourist choicedefined the role of a destination as “central” or “peripheral” within a network. Tourists build their own networks aroundnodal destinations, even if they are geographically distant. Thus, tourist mobility affects the shape, the dimension, and thestructure of the networks, where tourists are different for characteristics, trip-related behaviors, and type of holiday chosen.The study provides some evidence that can be useful for planning tourism facilities, managing tourism routes, and definingdestination management strategies.