Destination Network Analysis

Destination network analysis treats a tourism destination as a network of interconnected stakeholders, firms, public agencies, intermediaries, and community actors, and studies its structure with the tools of social network analysis. The approach was consolidated by Noel Scott, Rodolfo Baggio, and Chris Cooper, whose 2008 book Network Analysis and Tourism: From Theory to Practice argued that a destination's competitiveness and capacity to coordinate depend not only on individual businesses but on the web of relationships that links them. By mapping who collaborates, exchanges information, or refers business to whom, the analysis reveals how cohesive a destination is, which organizations occupy central or brokering positions, and how the destination decomposes into sub-communities, providing an evidence base for destination governance and management.