Abstract: Tourism flow, as the foundation of tourism, is the essential areas of tourism geography research. Chinese scholars have made abundant achievements in the field of tourism flow research over the past 30 years. However, most of them focus on the tourist flow. However, the research on the tourism information flow which is the key factor that affects the tourist decision and then affects the tourism flow is rarely involved. Based on a universal scheme for quantitative research on the flow space structure features of tourism information flow, and taking the Pearl River-West River economic belt as the typical research area. 12 739 valid data of tourist information flow of 11 core cities in the Pearl River-West River economic belt (Guangzhou, Foshan, Yunfu, Zhaoqing, Nanning, Liuzhou, Laibin, Wuzhou, Baise, Chongzuo, Guigang) were obtained through 5 major online tourism platforms (Ctrip.com, Qunar.com, fliggy.com, ly.com and tuniu.com) in 2019. Firstly, the correlation matrix of tourism information flow is constructed. Then, this paper describes the flow space structure features of tourism information flow of 11 core cities in this region from 3 aspects: characteristics of direction and its rate, scale and principal-subordinate relationship of tourism information flow. Therefore, it provides a scientific basis for the construction and development of tourism integration of this area and a new perspective and method for the study of tourism flow. The results are obtained as follows: ①The provincial capital cities of Guangzhou and Nanning are not only the main gathering cities of tourism information flow in this region, but also the main export cities, and the aggregation and output of tourism information flow are 1.30, 2.55 and -0.13, 0.76 respectively. The non-provincial capital cities with special tourism resources of Chongzuo and Baise are the main gathering cities in this region, and the aggregation of tourism information flow are 1.74 and 1.55 respectively. The forward and backward flow of tourism information among the provincial capital cities and non-provincial capital cities with distinctive tourism resources is basically the same. Namely, the forward and backward flow of tourism information of Guangzhou$\leftrightarrows$Nanning and Chongzuo$\leftrightarrows$Baise are 0.55, 0.47, -0.25, -0.25. The difference of the forward and backward flow of tourism information between provincial capital cities and non-provincial capital cities with distinctive tourism resources is vast, such as Guangzhou$\leftrightarrows$Chongzuo (6.11, 0.11) and Guangzhou$\leftrightarrows$Baise (5.92, 0.26). ②Among 11 cities of this region, the scale of tourism information flow in Guangzhou (2.39) is far larger than that of other cities. Followed by Chongzuo (0.72) and Baise (0.62), with distinctive tourism resources, and their scales of tourism information flow are basically the same. Nanning (0.40), Foshan (0.22) take the fourth and fifth place. And other cities’ scales of tourism information flow are lower than the average level of this region. ③There is significant polarization of flow space for the tourism information flow in this region, and Guangzhou is the dominant city and the largest flow space node. Nanning, Chongzuo and Baise transformed from the sub-dominant divergent, gathering city and subordinate city of the first tourism information dominant flow to the sub-dominant gathering city, dominant city and sub-dominant gathering city of the second and third dominant flow respectively. It shows that the flow barycenter of tourism information dominant flow gradually shifts to Guangxi. At the same time, Baise and Chongzuo have obvious sub-regional characteristics. Other cities are subordinate cities of tourism information flow.

Key words: tourism information flow, flow space, structure features, online tourism platforms, core cities, Pearl River-West River economic belt