Research on the analysis of information roles of travelers during traveling information searching process

Focusing on travelers´ external information sources-their social network, this research exams important informational roles that would have a major impact on travelers´ information search behavior from social network perspective. To be specific, the study starts from identifying two important roles in the process of travelers´ information search basing on the degree centrality and the between ness centrality of social network, which are tourism information cores and tourism information brokers. It further analyses these roles´ characteristics and travelers´ corresponding strategies. In the final part, a questionnaire survey is conducted to get empirical data in order to identify information roles and capture tourism information cores and tourism information brokers. Results and implications are deeply discussed.