Tourists’ spatiotemporal behaviors in an emerging wine region: A time-geography perspective

Tourist spatiotemporal behavior is critical for the monitoring and planning of tourism destinations. This study focused on the tourist spatiotemporal behavior at a wine tourism destination, i.e., the eastern foot of Helan Mountain in Ningxia, traced tourist movement trajectories using a tracking app, and collected information on itineraries and tourist behavior characteristics through a questionnaire survey. A time-geographical analytical approach was used to analyze the tourist spatiotemporal movement patterns. Four spatiotemporal movement patterns were identified, and tourists’ demographic and behavioral characteristics were examined with these movement patterns. This study found that the spatial distribution of tourists was subject to the effects of spatial proximity, agglomeration, and transportation junctions. The results contribute to a better understanding of tourist behavioral characteristics under different spatiotemporal movement patterns in an emerging wine region. The implications for destination planning and marketing are discussed. •This paper examines tourists' spatiotemporal behaviors using movement trajectory data.•Tourists in different sequential movement patterns are different in behavioral features.•Tourist distribution is affected by spatial proximity, agglomeration and transport hub.•Winery-winery tourists are mostly repeat visitors and wine related professionals.