Fuzzy decision-making in tourism and hospitality: A bibliometric review

Abstract

Fuzzy decision-making is increasingly becoming a pivotal approach to solving complex and intricate issues in tourism and hospitality management. The primary objective of this study is to unveil the developmental status, key themes and research trends within fuzzy decision-making in tourism and hospitality management (FDMTH) using Bibliometrix, CorText Manager and VOSviewer tools. As such, we conduct a comprehensive bibliometric and content-wise analysis of selected 341 publications concerning FDMTH. For one thing, we use valuable bibliometric indicators to conduct a general feature peek and performance analysis of the audited corpus. The research findings reveal a sustained scholarly interest in FDMTH. As a critical player, Pappas, Nikolaos leads the volume of publications. The Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems stands out as the preferred outlet for FDMTH research. For another, the contingency matrix and bump graph modules are employed to detect the knowledge flow and intellectual connections in FDMTH. The results of network mapping tentatively identify geographic and thematic biases in FDMTH. More importantly, bibliographic coupling analysis reveals four specific themes, namely multi-criteria decision-making and evaluation, factors identification, fuzzy programming and forecasting, and fuzzy intelligence. Our pioneer work will contribute to the present understanding of the complexity and interdisciplinarity of FDMTH.