Past, present and future: trends in tourism research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tourism academics are organized like a very small community that interacts within this small group so that its scientific advances are not imported by other disciplines, the so-called tribes defined by Tribe [Tribe, J. (2006). The truth about tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(2), 360–381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2005.11.001]. The discussion usually ends with the rankings of authors and journals that also contribute to funnelling out knowledge. This research attempts to understand the gaps of tourism research to draw in trends that should be emphasized in and out of tourism community. Based upon a collection of 63,176 papers that is all the papers published in Scopus journals, social network analysis is applied to unveil countries, journals, and authors’ expertise as well as convergence points in academia through the content analysis of keywords, scientific areas, affiliated countries and journals. The findings contribute as a guide for scholars and to the discussion of the gaps of tourism whether it be as a trans- or interdisciplinary approach. The full picture that this paper allows to have about tourism research also represents a critical analysis about its evolution since its very beginning emphasizing its weakness and strengths. The study ends with a few suggestions to raise the interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary nature of tourism research.