Research in tourism sustainability: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis from 1990 to 2022

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 2;9(8):e18874. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e18874. eCollection 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Although multiple bibliometric studies have been conducted to analyze publications on various topics within tourism, little attention has been dedicated to systematically analyzing scholarly production on the topic of tourism sustainability. Consequently, this paper aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric and systematic review of tourism sustainability. The collected data include 6326 publications retrieved from the Scopus database. The bibliometric technique consists of two major analyses: one on the domain (levels of analysis) and one on knowledge structures. The results indicated a remarkable evolution of tourism sustainability research involving authors, sources, and publications on this subject. Several associations and nations made significant contributions to this theme. Moreover, science mapping approaches were used to thoroughly grasp tourism sustainability-related research's social, intellectual, and conceptual structure. By giving in-depth overviews and insights connected to tourism sustainability and its knowledge structures, this review article has various implications for scientific study and practice.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Knowledge structures; Sustainability; Tourism; Tourism sustainability.

Publication types

  • Review