Do social media data indicate visits to tourist attractions? A case study of Shanghai, China
ISSN: 0168-2601
Article publication date: 28 September 2021
Issue publication date: 14 February 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Can Chinese social media data (SMD) be used as an alternative to traditional surveys used to understand tourists' visitation of attractions in Chinese cities? The purpose of this paper is to explore this question.
Design/methodology/approach
Popular tourism SMD sources in China, such as Ctrip, Weibo and Dazhong Dianping (DZDP), were used as data source, and the relationships between these sources and traditional data sources were studied with statistical methods. Data from Shanghai were used in this study since it is rich in tourism resources and developed in information.
Findings
A systematic research method was followed and led to the following conclusions: There were positive correlations for attraction visitation between Chinese SMD and traditional survey data; Chinese SMD source could temporally indicate visits to Shanghai tourist attractions; Ctrip SMD generally performed less well than Weibo or DZDP, and different SMD performed differently depending on the specific attractions and time units in the visitation calculation process; and factors including visitation, distance from the city center and the grade of attractions might affect the prediction performance based on data from the SMD. The findings suggest that Chinese SMD could be used as a cost-efficient and reliable proxy for traditional survey data to predict Chinese attraction visitation.
Originality/value
This study applies and improves the methods of SMD reliability in attraction use studies, supplies the gap for premise, basis and foundation for the large amounts of tourism researches using SMD in China and could promote and inspire more efficient and advanced measures in tourism management and urban development.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51908290), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (19KJB220008) and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).
Citation
Liang, H. and Zhang, Q. (2022), "Do social media data indicate visits to tourist attractions? A case study of Shanghai, China", Open House International, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 17-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-05-2021-0110
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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