With increasing concerns about overtourism and its associated impacts, there remains an imperative need to understand the spatial concentration of tourist activities within destinations. This study demonstrates that mobile phone data can be leveraged to accurately quantify the spatial concentration effect and potential heterogeneity among travelers with different social backgrounds. We introduce an analytical framework and demonstrate its efficacy through a case study of international travelers in three Korean cities (Seoul, Busan and Jeju). Results show that Asian travelers exhibit the highest spatial concentration, followed by European and North Americans, a finding that is consistent across all three cities and different times of the day. The Theil’s entropy index effectively portrays spatial similarity of activities among the three groups, revealing that the spatial preferences of European travelers are intermediate between those of Asians and North Americans. The findings underscore the importance of considering travelers’ social backgrounds in tourist flow management.

中文翻译：

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韩国城市城市内旅游活动空间集中度及亚洲、欧洲和北美旅行者的群体间差异


随着人们对过度旅游及其相关影响的日益担忧，仍然迫切需要了解目的地内旅游活动的空间集中度。这项研究表明，可以利用手机数据来准确量化具有不同社会背景的旅行者之间的空间集中效应和潜在异质性。我们引入了一个分析框架，并通过对三个韩国城市（首尔、釜山和济州岛）的国际旅行者的案例研究来证明其有效性。结果显示，亚洲旅行者的空间集中度最高，其次是欧洲人和北美人，这一发现在所有三个城市和一天中的不同时间都是一致的。泰尔熵指数有效地描绘了这三个群体之间活动的空间相似性，揭示了欧洲旅行者的空间偏好介于亚洲人和北美人之间。研究结果强调了在旅游流量管理中考虑旅行者社会背景的重要性。