Are we really progressing sustainable tourism research? A bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Periodic assessment of the ‘state of play’ in research outputs is an essential process for gauging academic progress and latent trends within a field of study. Bibliometric analysis of 839 sustainable tourism-related papers over a thirty-year period (1987–2017), extracted from a selection of the top ranked tourism journals confirmed a lack of reticulation and integration among individual contributions, in part due to an exponential increase in output, but parallel evidence of subdomain maturation. This includes reduced emphasis on definitional issues and increased focus on empirical applications as well as a broader ‘pragmatic turn’ indicated by the dominance of ‘stakeholder’ contributions related to industry and community. These moreover are qualified by recognition of the need to adopt and develop higher standards of methodological and theoretical engagement. We innovate by analysing engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and reveal these to constitute a major latent theme, albeit to widely variable extents. It is recommended that these be mobilised as a pragmatic and universally embraced framework for engaging with sustainable tourism and salient external threats such as climate change.

Keywords:

• Tourism
• sustainability
• trends
• practice
• sustainable development goals

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr Megan Axelsen in preparing and reviewing the database for analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brent Moyle

Dr Brent Moyle is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith University. He takes an interdisciplinary approach to tourism research, partnering with researchers and communities to maximise outcomes. Brent takes pride in conducting research at the interface between theory and practice, engaging extensively with industry partners to complete research with impact. His passion for sustainable regional development laid the foundations for a number of long-term collaborations with local government and parks agencies.

Char-lee Moyle

Dr Char-lee Moyle is a Lecturer in the QUT Business School, School of Management, Queensland University of Technology. Her research is focused in three main streams. First, regional economic development and transformation, second, strategic policy and planning, and third the adoption of sustainability. Char-lee has also undertaken numerous commercial research projects, including revitalizing regional tourism infrastructure, labour market analyses, investigating the gap between supply and demand for indigenous tourism and exploring strategic issues in Australian tourism.

Lisa Ruhanen

Dr Lisa Ruhanen is the Director of Education and Professor, University of Queensland Business School. She has been involved in more than 30 academic and consultancy research projects in Australia and overseas. Her research areas include sustainable tourism destination policy and planning, climate change and Indigenous tourism.

David Weaver

Dr David Weaver is a Principal Research Fellow in the QUT Business School, School of Management, Queensland University of Technology. David Weaver has held professorial appointments in Australia, Canada and the USA. He has published more than 160 journal articles, book chapters and books, and maintains an active research agenda in sustainable tourism management, ecotourism, dark tourism and resident perceptions of tourism. His textbooks include Advanced Introduction to Sustainable Tourism (Edward Elgar), Tourism Management (Wiley Australia, with Laura Lawton), and Ecotourism (Wiley Australia). He is a Fellow Emeritus of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, has delivered numerous invited keynote addresses around the world, and held a prestigious Chang Jiang Scholarship from the Chinese Ministry of Education.

Arghavan Hadinejad

Dr Arghavan Hadinejad recently graduated her PhD from the Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management at Griffith University. Dr Hadinejad has recently commenced as a lecturer in the Business School in the University of South Australia. Her emerging area of expertise is bibliometric analysis, with other research streams grounded in cognitive psychology, with research on destination marketing designed to influence practice as well as achieve high level academic outcomes.