A bibliometric analysis of sustainable tourism and sustainable development: Trends, themes, and research gaps

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of academic publications on the subjects of sustainable tourism and sustainable development, aiming to reveal the intellectual structure, thematic evolution, and research trends within the field. Additionally, this study aims to identify gaps in the literature, guide future research, and contribute to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals through the tourism sector. Articles on “sustainable tourism” and “sustainable development” retrieved from the Web of Science database were included in the analysis. The annual number of publications, three-field plot, most relevant authors, author impact, most relevant journals, journal impact, most relevant institutions, publication distribution by country, most cited articles, word cloud, thematic map, co-citation network, co-occurrence keywords, and international collaborations were examined. A total of 1,296 articles indexed in the Web of Science between 1992 and 2025 were analysed using the Biblioshiny package within the RStudio software. The findings indicate a significant increase in academic interest in this field, particularly after 2019. Authors such as Wang Y., Li Y., and Hall C. M. stand out, while Journal of Sustainable Tourism and Sustainability were identified as the most prolific journals. The results show that themes such as governance, environmental indicators, and community-based tourism are prominent, while climate change, CO2 emissions, and digital transformation have emerged as rising topics.