Abstract: This study examines the network structure of multicity inbound tourism in China in 2008 with the methods of social network analysis, GIS spatial analysis and mathematical analysis. More precisely, this investigation acquires analyses of the structural configuration of each city, network and cohesion within a country destination by measuring the indicators of network analysis which include node indicators of centrality and structural holes, network indicators of density, centralization and core-periphery, and cohesion indicator of clique. The results show that there are 46 nodes in the tourism network. Nodes distribution shows the spatial pattern of "dense southeast and sparse northwest". On average, each city node in the tourism network has tourists flow-related connections with 2.96 other nodes. And the node system is divided into four levels, the higher the rank, the smaller the number of nodes is. The major traditional tourism cities and regional central cities have good performance, and take important positions. The density of tourism network is low and unbalanced. There are nine cliques in the tourism network, which were driven by location transportation, tourism resources and economic links, but the effect of urban space distance is the minimal.

Key words: China, inbound tourists, multicity tourism, social network analysis, tourism network