Bibliometric analysis of tourism research for the period 2007-2016

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify trends in tourism literature in bibliometric terms by analyzing scientific studies carried out over the past decade and to reveal the similarities and differences of the trends between Turkey originated and other international publications. The research data comprised of 4473 studies published between 2007-2016 in the top-five journals of tourism field according to the Journal Citation Reports and 213 Turkey-originated studies published in 19 tourism and hospitality journals. The journals were examined in terms of number and types of publications, author-institution-country productivity, citation analysis, conceptual orientations and citation burst. In order to reveal the links between key words and the leading studies, social network analysis was utilized. Social network analysis facilitates mapping the links in a research community and specifying the key actors for the field development. According to research findings, experimental researches were observed to have an important place in both Turkey originated and other international publications. It was determined that topics of organizational behavior and management fields were studied the most, particularly the concepts such as attitude, perception, intention, experience, behavior and satisfaction were measured. Turkey originated publications often addressed conflict and behavior issues whereas other international publications focused on sustainable tourism, destinations, local people and travel experiences. It is considered that the research results would enable individuals interested in tourism discipline, in both scientific and sectorial terms, to have an overview of the research scope and intellectual framework of the field.