Health tourism in China: a 40-year bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze the evolution of health tourism development, identify relevant themes and segments of health tourism research and offer future research directions and practical implications for academic researchers and tourism practitioners worldwide using China as an example. Design/methodology/approach Using a bibliometric analysis, the present study comprehensively analyzes the theme, segments and the evolution of health tourism research over the past 40 years in China. Findings Major findings show that health tourism research in China could be divided into four stages with different characteristics, and three segments, including wellness tourism, health and wellness tourism and medical tourism. Findings also reveal the trend of health tourism development tends to be industrialized, diversified and systematic under the guidance of recent policies. Theoretically, based on the theoretical framework developed by Hall (2011), the present study contributes to the establishment and extension of the framework for health tourism within the context of China. Practically, findings can provide health tourism-related policy implications for the future development of health or health sector-integrated tourism. Research limitations/implications The study proposes possible collaboration between government and academia in terms of health tourism-related policy formulation. Originality/value Through 40-year bibliometric analysis of health tourism evolution in China, the present study explores the main themes of health tourism development, identifies the segments of health tourism and analyzes the development stages of health tourism. Findings should be of use to international readers to better understand the uniqueness of health tourism development and find out possible future health tourism development research directions. As a result, major contributions of this paper are the comprehensive analysis of the evolution of health tourism research and the implications on other countries and regions to adopt a pragmatic approach to explore the trend and unique characteristics of health tourism for future development.

Digital tourism research: a bibliometric visualisation review (2002–2023) and research agenda

“…Unrelated topics (e.g. online learning and online car-hailing) are further excluded (Zhong et al , 2023). Finally, 646 articles were identified and analysed (Figure 1).…”

“…Despite its strong data processing capability and wide utilisation in influential tourism literature review [e.g. health tourism (Zhong et al, 2023), tourism destination (Huang et al, 2023), inbound tourism (Li et al, 2022)], an objective and comprehensive picture of intellectual evolution in the field of digital tourism through bibliometric analysis is still missing.…”

Establishment of a value evaluation system for health and wellness tourism resources: Reflections on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria

“…More health and wellness tourism policies and goals began to appear in China in 2016, and a complete, large-scale and influential health and wellness tourism market has not yet been formed. Therefore, the three levels of government, academia and tourism should be integrated to adjust and upgrade the directions of policy and implementation, resource evaluation and development, and industry and culture integration [11]. The scientific evaluation of health and wellness tourism resources requires in-depth excavation of resource values, integration with related industries of the city as much as possible, echoing traditional culture, and enriching the function and value of health and wellness tourism resources [12].…”

Analysis of spatial-temporal pattern, dynamic evolution and influencing factors of health tourism development in China

“…Zhong et al (2023) conducted a comprehensive review of 40 years of literature in the Chinese CNKI database and classified Chinese health tourism studies into different stages, namely “exploration stage of health tourism (1981–2001)”, “initial stage of health tourism (2002–2012)”, “development stage of health tourism driven by demand (2013–2015)”, and “growing stage of health tourism driven by policy (2016–2020)”. The author also identified “wellness tourism”, “health and wellness tourism”, and “medical tourism” as the main areas of focus, and pointed out that China’s health tourism is evolving towards industrialization, diversification, and systematization 3 . Overall, studies on health tourism in China and abroad mainly focus on the connotation, value, and development of health tourism.…”