2025/08/18 by Siyue Chen, Yang Tan, Biao He +2 · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research #International Business and FDI #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts
paper · doi:10.1080/14616688.2025.2538572
openalex publication_date 2025/08/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although research on the geopolitics of tourism has deepened, discussions on its impact on tourism flow networks remain limited. To further address this issue, we construct a tourism flow network using the China-ASEAN countries as a case study. A combined approach of semi-structured interviews and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was employed to identify the configuration pathways of geopolitical factors influencing the formation of tourism flow networks. The results show that the China-ASEAN tourism flow network exhibits a ‘one core, two hubs’ structure, with Singapore as the core and China and Malaysia as the hubs. Its formation is influenced by the synergistic effects of multiple geopolitical conditions, with religion, economy, tourism encounters, and infrastructure playing crucial roles; major geopolitical events such as the Belt and Road Initiative can trigger fluctuations in these influences. This study applies geopolitical theory to regional tourism flow networks, thereby expanding the application of geopolitical theory in the tourism field and enriching research on the influencing factors of tourism flow networks. It calls on governments and businesses to recognise the driving role of geopolitics in tourism flow networks and provides empirical evidence for future research on effective connections and exchanges within tourism flow networks.