Scientific collaboration and thematic analysis of the tourism industry in the context of COVID-19: a bibliometric approach

Abstract

Purpose The main purpose of this research paper is to generate a holistic bibliometric study of the tourism industry and COVID-19 fields, to further investigate the current interests and trends emerging from scientific collaboration and thematic analysis and to identify research gaps that indicate future research directions. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts several analyses, which include the co-authorship and social network analysis, co-citation and keyword co-occurrence knowledge structures. The authors generate a knowledge map of the leading articles and link them with previous literature to elucidate the debates and consensus in research on COVID-19 and tourism. Findings Research interests concentrate in the USA, China, Europe and the Oceania areas, so more cross-continental collaborations are expected among them and with other regions. Popular topics are tourism sustainable transformation, crisis management and multidisciplinary fields like tourism, hospitality, information technology and environmental sciences. This paper also identifies underexplored topics for future investigation on the social, environmental, cultural and governance dimensions of sustainable tourism. Research limitations/implications This paper contributes to guiding tourism researchers in identifying and finding publication references and future collaborations. Moreover, the investigation of knowledge structures could be beneficial for scholars hoping to broaden the current understanding of this field and discover potential for future tourism research, especially in the global pandemic and other severe health crises. Originality/value This study enriches the existing literature in the fields of tourism and the pandemic and highlights current interests and research trends exploring scientific collaboration, thematic analysis and knowledge mapping.

Social network analysis in hospitality and tourism: Guest editorial

“…1. These are the numbers associated to the 13 papers: 1 – Wang et al (2023); 2 – Jokar et al (2022); 3 – Yang et al (2022); 4 – Ness et al (2022); 5 – Baggio et al (2022); 6 – Shrestha et al (2023); 7 – Ivars-Baidal et al (2023); 8 – McLeod et al (2022); 9- Blasi et al (2022); 10 – Vila-Lopez and Kuster-Boluda (2022); 11 – Breznik et al (2022); 12 – Wang et al (2022); 13 – Chen (2022). …”

“…Yang et al (2022) explored research interests and trends in co-authorship, co-citation and keyword co-occurrence in the fields of tourism and the pandemic. The study proposes a knowledge map of the leading articles and provides potential for future tourism research, especially in the global pandemic crises.7…”