Sustainable Tourism in Sensitive Areas: Bibliometric Characterisation and Content Analysis of Specialised Literature

Abstract

Thirty years after the emergence of the term "sustainable tourism" and in view of the proliferation of literature on the subject, it seems appropriate to carry out a bibliographical review, based on empirical bibliometric data, in order to find out who the leading research pioneers are for this type of tourism, discover gaps in our understanding, and redefine the concept's frontiers. This paper focuses specifically on sustainable tourism in sensitive areas, in a first attempt to provide understanding of the accumulated knowledge of the sub-theme by looking at research presented by impact publications. A total of 985 papers published on this topic on Web of Science were selected to this end, and after applying the H-Classics methodology, a content analysis of the forty papers with the greatest impact was carried out. This has led to the discovery of research trends, gaps in the analysis of polar and mountainous areas, and a lack of a core group of highly productive researchers in this area.

A modernism‐based interpretation of sustainable tourism

“…Thus, this study has two research objectives: (a) to conduct a modernism‐based interpretation of sustainable development and (b) to solicit a modernism‐based understanding or conceptual framework of sustainable tourism. This study is expected to decrease confusion with the concept, thereby enhancing the knowledge about sustainable tourism, one of the most prominent areas in tourism field (Qian et al, ; Sánchez‐Cañizares et al, ). Advanced conceptual understanding and a theoretical framework with summarized thinking may facilitate consistent transformation and thus reduce miscommunication in both academic discussions and practical policymaking (Miller & Twining‐Ward, ).…”

“…The past 30 years have witnessed an exponential increase in research on sustainable tourism (Sánchez-Cañizares, Castillo-Canalejo, & Cabeza-Ramírez, 2018). In 2012, Buckley (2012) estimated that approximately 5,000 studies had been published on this topic.…”

“…In 2012, Buckley (2012) estimated that approximately 5,000 studies had been published on this topic. In 2018, a similar search yielded 8,500 results in Web of Science (Sánchez-Cañizares et al, 2018). Regardless of the sheer volume of research, the conceptual vagueness and hereby implicit practical implications of sustainable tourism make it a controversial subject (Bramwell, Higham, Lane, & Miller, 2017;Ruhanen, Moyle, & Moyle, 2019).…”

Sustainable Tourism Research Towards Twenty-Five Years of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism

“…The research in this topic has grown a lot in recent years (Qian, Shen, & Law, 2018). According to Buckley (2012), a search by this topic in Web of Science showed more than 8,500 results and more than 1 million in Google Scholar (Sánchez-Cañizares et al, 2018). Xiao and Smith (2006) said that, tourism journals have also recognized the importance of such review studies and have published more of these articles.…”

“…Finally, the paper also indicated that Scopus has a better coverage in the community tourism due to collecting a greater number of articles and journals, and its articles receive a greater number of citations. Finally, the paper of Sánchez-Cañizares et al (2018) conducts a bibliographical review in order to find out who the leading research pioneers are in sustainable tourism in sensitive areas, discover gaps, and to redefine the concept's frontiers.…”