Abstract: The closer and more complex relationship between cities in China makes the position of cities in regional economic development more and more prominent.Taking 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta as the research object, and by introducing the tourism economic development index and traffic accessibility index to modify the gravity model, establishes the spatial connection network model of the Yangtze River Delta city tourism economy, the paper describes the network structure characteristics from the network density, network centrality, structure hole, core edge structure and so on, analyzes the group of the Yangtze River Delta city tourism economic space and calculates the connection strength of tourism economy in Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.The results show that: there are great differences in the level of tourism economic development in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and other cities have obvious location advantages;the density of tourism economic connection network of cities in the Yangtze River Delta is large and unbalanced, and the phenomenon of “core edge” is obvious, showing a spatial distribution pattern of “strong southeast and weak northwest”. Along Hefei, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo, a highly attractive “Z-shaped” Tourism Economic Corridor is formed; the “one core, three poles and four axes” is the spatial organization of tourism economy in Yangtze River Delta cities pattern.

Key words: tourism economy spatial connection, social network analysis, spatial organization mode, Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration