Diffusion and Future Influence of Tourism Research: Addressing the How and When Questions of Tourism Knowledge Structures

Abstract

This article addresses how core tourism research has influenced other cognate research disciplines through the diffusion of its knowledge structure and when, in the future, this diffused knowledge structure might evolve in terms of research expansion and contraction. Study 1 analyses 4,753 tourism research articles, revealing seven core clusters that represent the tourism discipline. The study then determines how this core influences other cognate research disciplines by identifying 14 clusters from 38,657 articles representing the diffused knowledge structure of tourism research. Diffusion is assessed within and among core and diffused knowledge structures. Study 2 forecasts when and to what extent citation patterns—in the form of research expansion and contraction—are likely to change.