The change in tourists’ movement patterns in the COVID-19 pandemic: the case of Gangwon Province

ABSTRACT

This study investigates changes in tourists’ travel patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected two-year data (one year before and one year after the outbreak) on tourist movements and conducted a network analysis. The results show that tourists’ travel patterns became simplified, centering on tourists’ origins and destinations, while visits to other regions became far less frequent. Additionally, the centrality of the regions with easy traffic access increased, and cohesion with neighboring regions significantly improved. Overall, this study shows that the policies implemented to restrict the spread of COVID-19 limit tourists’ movement and bring a different pattern of movement.

KEYWORDS:

• Pandemic
• tourist movement
• network analysis
• centrality analysis
• cohesion analysis

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).