Based on mobile positioning big data, this study analyzes the quantity of visitation changes of leisure tourism facilities under the impact of COVID-19, which is a direct way to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the leisure tourism industry. The quantity of visitation to the four types of leisure facilities (scenic spots, shopping services, sports services, science and cultural education services) in the three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao) decreased by 63.06% and 44.74% respectively on the Tomb Sweeping Day and the Labor Day in 2020 compared with 2019. The biggest decreasing was in science and cultural education services, followed by scenic spots and sports services, and finally shopping services. The curve of hourly visitations to leisure facilities in 2020 shows a smooth feature, indicating that the public has reduced the risk of pandemic through peak shifting leisure. The analysis of influencing factors shows that the influence of the floor area on visitation is different in different phases. From Tomb Sweeping Day to Labour Day in 2020, the influence of area on leisure behaviour changes from negative to positive. This paper provides a technical framework for assessing the impact of crisis event, and expands the protection motivation theory.
This study investigates the evolution of the structures of China’s domestic intercity tourism information flow networks, an increasingly important issue in an information-driven society. Moving beyond prior research that primarily emphasizes urban node attributes and multidimensional distances, this study applies social network analysis to develop an integrated analytical framework that incorporates endogenous structural effects, exogenous network effects, node attributes, and similarity effects. Using tourism information flows in China as an empirical proxy, the study examines the mechanisms underlying the formation and persistence of intercity relationships within the country. The results indicate that the self-organization of microscopic network structures plays a significant role in both tie formation and persistence, particularly through reciprocity, cyclicity, and convergence. Notably, the effect of cyclicity reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic and changed direction from relationship formation to persistence. In addition, cultural distance (proxied by dialect distance), geographical distance, and institutional distance significantly inhibit both the formation and persistence of intercity tourism information flows. Changes in urban node scale and node similarity also exert significant influences on network evolution. This study deepens the understanding of the spatial structural dynamics of China’s domestic intercity tourism information flows and provides a conceptual basis for future research on the evolutionary mechanisms of tourism network structures within a domestic context. Its direct significance lies in promoting sustainable urban tourism development, network resilience, and adaptive governance of urban systems.