THE MEASUREMENT OF TRANSPORTATION NETWORK EFFICIENCY AND DIAGNOSIS OF STRUCTURAL DEFICIENCIES IN JILIN PROVINCE’S WINTER TOURISM

Abstract

Addressing the current situation where the high-quality development of Jilin Province’s winter tourism industry is constrained by infrastructure bottlenecks, this study conducts a systematic assessment of network efficiency by constructing a transportation network model comprising 86 nodes and 327 routes. The findings reveal that the density of Jilin Province’s winter tourism transportation network is only 0.087, indicating weak overall connectivity that is significantly lower than that of neighboring strong provinces such as Heilongjiang. Node centrality analysis reveals severe polarization: core hubs such as Changchun Longjia International Airport and Jilin Station dominate in both degree centrality and betweenness centrality, while remote scenic areas such as Dunhua Laobai Mountain Snow Village have extremely low accessibility. Cluster analysis identified four highly isolated sub-regions, confirming the existence of pronounced regional fragmentation within the province. Further analysis revealed that insufficient network connectivity results in high transfer costs for remote scenic areas, with one-way travel times reaching 5 to 6 hours. Additionally, the overreliance on a single-mode transportation structure (roads and railways) exacerbates operational risks during extreme winter weather. The Matthew effect in node development causes high-quality resources to concentrate in urban centers, trapping remote scenic areas in a vicious cycle of poor transportation access, sparse visitor numbers, and delayed development. This study provides quantitative evidence and decision-making references for resolving the transportation challenges in Jilin Province’s winter tourism sector and promoting regional coordinated development.