A bibliometric overview of economic sustainability in tourism

The idea of sustainability was introduced in 1713 by Hans Carl von Carlowitz in forest management. Later, Forestry Professor Hartig further developed the concept, defining sustainability as follows: “Every prudent forest manager must assess the forest stands promptly and use them to their fullest potential while ensuring that future generations can enjoy at least as much benefit as the current generation” (Cit. by Schmutzenhofer, 1992). The issue of environmental management, particularly the mismanagement of natural resources, has a far-reaching impact on the entire social and global system. Within this context, tourism emerges as a significant theme, drawing increasing attention and becoming the subject of extensive research. Its significance reached its peak during the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

According to the United Nations Environmental Programme and World Tourism Organization (2005, p.11), sustainable tourism is defined as “tourism that takes into full consideration its present and future economic, social, and environmental effects, while addressing the requirements of tourists, the industry, the environment, and host communities.” In essence, sustainable tourism caters to visitors’ needs, ensures responsible management of natural resources, and promotes eco-friendly practices. Hallenga-Brink and Brezet (2005) further elaborate that sustainable tourism strives to minimise or mitigate the impact of tourism activities on the environment, fosters the preservation of local cultures, and contributes to the well-being of host communities by creating employment opportunities and attracting human resources. In this way, sustainable tourism seeks to balance tourism’s benefits and potential negative effects, aiming for a harmonious and long-lasting relationship between tourists, destinations, and the environment.

In the context of tourism, Dwyer et al. (2020) acknowledge the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic. Environmental sustainability pertains to the conservation of resources, with particular attention to non-renewable resources. Key indicators include the carbon footprint, biodiversity, environmental quality, and the capacity to minimise waste, degradation, and depletion of resources. Social sustainability revolves around respect and equality, primarily preserving local communities’ cultural and identity aspects. Indicators encompass qualitative services and infrastructure, fair wages, job satisfaction in the tourism sector, non-discrimination in contracts, avoidance of cultural commodification, individual empowerment, lifestyle, community influence on politics, and the impact of tourism concentration on local areas. Economic sustainability aims to achieve long-term economic viability, promote social benefits, and provide opportunities for all stakeholders, including poverty reduction. Indicators considered are tourism expenditure, productivity, contribution to economic growth, business profitability, employment opportunities, the livelihood of communities, impact on other industries, sources of tourism product creation, and income distribution within destinations, among other relevant factors.

Indeed, Choi and Sirakaya (2006) consider sustainability a process of optimising the development growth rate at the level of managing a destination’s environmental limits. However, sustainability in tourism is applied in a more comprehensive setting and in a multidimensional rather than one-dimensional way.

Dwyer et al. (2020) also consider that balancing these three dimensions in the long term is the biggest challenge for sustainable tourism development. Sustainability is measured globally, considering environmental issues and the availability of natural resources, and at the local level, with job creation, cultural heritage, and environmental preservation.

Thus, tourism success is closely related to competitive success in the global market (Paunović et al., 2020) and to the destination’s economic and natural resource sustainability (Díaz & Espino Rodríguez, 2016). Given the latter’s prominence, it will be further discussed in the following section.

According to the United Nations Environmental Programme and World Tourism Organization (2005), economic sustainability is the long-term economic viability of economic activity, with equity and fair distribution of benefits, employment opportunities and poverty reduction. Economic sustainability is thus concerned with economic prosperity at diverse levels of society, economic profitability and efficiency, and the vitality of businesses in the tourism sector.

The United Nations Environmental Programme and World Tourism Organization (2005) have proposed several indicators to define and measure economic sustainability in tourism. These indicators help assess the economic impacts of tourism on the destination and its local community. These indicators include (i) tourism seasonality, referring to the distribution of tourist arrivals and activities throughout the year. Economic sustainability seeks to reduce overreliance on specific peak seasons to ensure a more stable and consistent flow of income for businesses and communities; (ii) employment opportunities: economic sustainability in tourism aims to create job opportunities and promote decent work for local residents, contributing to the overall economic well-being of the community; (iii) tourism as a means for nature preservation: this indicator highlights the potential of sustainable tourism practices to support conservation efforts and protect natural resources, thus contributing to the longterm economic viability of the destination; (iv) economic benefits in the local community/destination: economic sustainability emphasizes the equitable distribution of economic benefits from tourism among the local community, ensuring that tourism revenue supports local businesses and infrastructure development; (v) poverty alleviation: sustainable tourism aims to contribute to poverty reduction by providing economic opportunities and empowering local communities through tourism-related activities; (vi) competitiveness of tourism businesses: economic sustainability takes into account the competitiveness of tourism enterprises, encouraging their growth and success within the context of responsible and sustainable practices.

Looking to the future, achieving tourism sustainability will require striking a delicate balance between environmental and economic considerations. Given the involvement of numerous stakeholders with diverse objectives, aligning their interests towards a common goal becomes a complex challenge. Sustainable tourism must navigate this complexity by promoting stakeholder collaboration and dialogue, addressing potential conflicts, and finding synergies supporting environmental conservation and economic growth. A harmonious integration of environmental and economic objectives will ensure that tourism continues to thrive while preserving destinations’ natural and cultural assets for future generations. Sustainable tourism practices will play a pivotal role in achieving this balance and creating a positive and lasting impact on the environment and the economic prosperity of the communities involved (Qiu et al., 2019).

Due to the industry’s high environmental impact, tourism needs to reflect on the sustainability models applied and promoted in each destination. Harmony between economic and social growth and the environment is needed (Streimikiene et al., 2021).

Bibliometric analysis is frequently utilised in the social sciences for diverse objectives, such as uncovering emerging trends within specific themes, recognising collaboration patterns, and scrutinising the intellectual framework of a particular domain in the extant literature. According to Donthu et al. (2021), bibliometric analysis can provide a holistic view of scientific knowledge and evolutionary evaluation of a specific theme. The authors suggest that bibliometric analysis provides novel and meaningful ways to (1) gain a comprehensive overview, (2) identify knowledge gaps, (3) derive innovative ideas for investigation, and (4) position one’s contributions within the field.

The techniques utilised in bibliometric analysis can classified into two main categories: 1) performance analysis, which offers insights into the contributions of researchers in a specific field, and 2) science mapping, which reveals the connections between authors and research topics (Donthu et al., 2021).

The main objective of this paper is to make a valuable contribution by offering an extensive survey of bibliometric analysis and assessing specific domains within the existing literature using a vast bibliometric dataset. The Scopus database, renowned as the largest source of information on the subject under study, was utilised to search for relevant articles. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that pertinent articles not indexed in this database may be overlooked.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy to emphasise that the bibliometric analysis was conducted using the R-studio software, particularly leveraging the bibliometrix R-package. This package provides a comprehensive set of tools for quantitative research in bibliometrics and scientometrics. R-studio, an open-source environment, is renowned for its versatility and widespread adoption in data analysis and statistical computing (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017). Data processing was accomplished using the bibliometrix R-package, which offers specialised tools for conducting bibliometric analysis. These tools facilitate quantitative research in bibliometrics and scientometrics, using the versatile and widely adopted R language for data analysis and statistical computing.

With the research objective defined, a comprehensive investigation was conducted in the database on June 2023 using carefully selected and combined “economic sustainability,” “tourism,” “sustainable tourism,” “economy,” “economic indicators,” and “tourism policy,” yielding a total of 1716 publications between 1985 and 2023.

Subsequently, these findings were meticulously organised as follows: (1) sub-categories related to social sciences, document type, source type and language; (2) inclusive and exclusive criteria after the title and abstract scanning; and finally, the duplicate entries were eliminated, resulting in 1225 publications being excluded. This left a total of 491 publications that were included in the bibliometric analysis.

The bibliometric analysis sample consists of 234 sources involving 1173 authors, with 121 being sole-authored publications, resulting in an average of 2.58 authors per document. Additionally, the sample contains 1497 distinct keywords.

To analyse the results, the data was processed following the guidelines outlined by Donthu et al. (2021), all while considering the study’s objectives. This process involved conducting performance analysis and science mapping to analyse the study’s data comprehensively.

The bibliometric analysis was conducted following a structured approach involving four essential steps. The initial step involved defining the study’s objectives. Subsequently, in the second step, appropriate techniques for bibliometric analysis were determined. The third is composed of defining the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the articles that will be analysed, and the duplicate articles were removed. Finally, in the fourth step, the data was input into R-studio, and the results were diligently reported according to the study’s aims (Figure 1).

Figure 1:

The bibliometric analysis procedure

Source: Adapted from Donthu et al. (2021)

For data analysis, the following were considered in performance analysis: (1) publication-related metrics, with the data: total publications, number of contributing authors, number of active years of publication and productivity per active year of publication; (2) citation-related metrics, with total citations data and average citations. The data considered in the science mapping and taking into account that it is intended to analyse the evolution of concepts and studies over the years, co-citation analysis (which provides information on the past of research), bibliographic coupling (which provides information on the present of research), and finally, co-word analysis (which provides information on the state of research in the present) were considered for analysis. The authors’ keywords were considered as analysis data.

The performance analysis showcases metrics linked to the results derived from the publications of the studied sample.

The annual scientific analysis demonstrates a significant increase in publications from 2010. The first study on a database related to the topic under study dates to 1985, with one study and between one and nine publications in the following years (Figure 2).

Figure 2:

Publication number per year of bibliometric analysis

Since 2010, there has been a gradual rise in the number of publications on the subject, accompanied by fluctuations until 2019. However, starting in 2019, there has been a significant surge in publications, reaching a record high of 68 in 2021. As of the present year, 2023, there have been twenty-five publications on the subject. The notable increase in publications coincides with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdown of airspace and restrictions on travel between regions has led to the closure of many companies in the tourism sector close, resulting in unemployment. It is now increasingly evident and crucial that businesses in the tourism sector prioritise economic sustainability.

Figure 3 shows the number of contributing authors. Gavurova B., Grecu A., Latham J., and Zhang J. are the authors with the most publications in the sample. The remaining authors contributed three, two, or one publication.

Figure 3:

Publication number of contribution authors‘ bibliometric analysis

The sample comprises 234 sources, encompassing 1173 authors, of which 121 are sole-authored publications, leading to an average of 2.58 authors per document. The findings indicate significant collaboration among the authors and a comprehensive focus on economic sustainability.

The results show the authors’ production over the years. The publications have been constant over the years; most authors make one publication per year, while other authors make two publications per year (Figure 4).

Figure 4:

Number of active years of publication bibliometric analysis

Between the years 1999 and 2009, there was only one publication. However, the number of publications remained constant after this period, with an average of one to two publications per year.

Analysing the top twenty results, it becomes evident that the countries of the corresponding authors display varying publication numbers. Spain boasts the highest number of authors (30 publications), followed closely by the USA (29 publications), China (23 publications), and the United Kingdom (22 publications). The rest of the authors’ publication counts fall below twenty.

Figure 5 shows the number of publications per source, and upon verification, it is evident that the journal “Sustainability” has the highest impact in the analysed sample, boasting 50 publications. In second place is the “Journal of Sustainable Tourism,” with thirty-one publications, and in third is “Tourism Economics,” with eighteen publications.

Figure 5:

Number of publications by source bibliometric analysis

The journals with the lowest representation in the sample (top twenty) are the “International Journal of Tourism Research” and the “Journal of Cleaner Production” with four publications each. This sample accounts for 45% of all publication sources.

The dispersion of articles among various publications underscores the interdisciplinary nature and significance of the issue. Effective resource management affects the environment, the broader social community, and businesses reliant on natural resources. This highlights that economic sustainability transcends the boundaries of the social sciences.

Another relevant data set in the bibliometric analysis is the most cited authors and documents. The sample of publications in this study has 8969 citations, and the result is presented in Figure 6.

Figure 6:

otal citations of bibliometric analysis

Figure 7:

Co-citation analysis of bibliometric analysis

The authors Bornhorst T., with the publication in “Tourism Management,” Bramwell B., with the publication in “Sustainable Tourism,” and Hall J., with the publication in the “Journal Management Studies,” are shown as the most influential and relevant contributors to this study.

The trend of annual document publications in Table 1 reflects the sustained interest in the study over time. Moreover, the table demonstrates an average growth in economic sustainability over the past twenty years.

The peak in document publications occurred in 2010, followed by a notable increase in 2008. The results indicate a consistent rise in the number of articles published from 2001 onwards, which continued in subsequent years. The findings suggest significant potential for the subject of study to expand over the years.

Science mapping summarises the study sample, enabling a quicker visualisation of relationships between authors, themes, and the geographical distribution of authors. The analysis presented in this study will cover three main aspects: co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-word analysis.

Co-citation analysis provides a proactive assessment of document similarity. Utilising the co-citation network explores the connections among cited publications, providing valuable insights into the evolution of foundational themes within a research field over time.

The results show that authors cite each other among the thematic publications that interest them, forming small thematic clusters. There are no links between the different authors in the co-citation.

Bibliographic coupling analysis is a widely used method for establishing networks and clusters of literature. It identifies two works as bibliographically coupled if they both cite a common third work. The strength of the coupling is determined by the number of works they cite in common; the more works they cite in common, the stronger the coupling between them (Nettle & Frankenhuis, 2019).

The bibliographic coupling established five major clusters with the thematic impact of each theme (Figure 8).

Figure 8:

Bibliography coupling by citing publications of bibliometric analysis

The findings indicate that the tourism theme appears in all clusters, but its significance varies. The theme “sustainable” is present in four out of the five clusters, while the themes “tourism,” “sustainable,” and “development” are present in all clusters.

The analysis included a co-word analysis of author collaborations and keywords. In terms of thematic co-word analysis, three distinct clusters were identified: tourism, economic sustainability, and sustainable tourism (Figure 9).

Figure 9:

Relationship among topics of bibliometric analysis

The three major clusters are interconnected. The tourism cluster exhibits a robust association with the sustainable tourism cluster, which, in turn, has a strong connection to the economic sustainability cluster. Within the tourism cluster, there is a significant link between sustainability and tourism policy. The sustainable tourism cluster shows reasonable connections with various aspects, such as environmental, political economy, and sustainable development goals. On the other hand, the economic sustainability cluster is highly connected to sustainable development and moderately linked to themes like tourism development, management, cultural tourism, and social sustainability.

The bibliometric analysis shows that, over the years, the themes have constantly changed, following and adapting to emerging study needs. Figure 10 shows that, between 1985 and 1996, tourism was an isolated area of study, not being integrated by any other area.

Figure 10:

Thematic evaluation of bibliometric analysis

Between 1997 and 2008, new themes such as economic sustainability, tourism policy, and sustainable tourism were introduced. These themes gradually became integrated into various areas of tourism study, such as conservation, cultural tourism, climate change, urban tourism, and regional development in subsequent years. Over the last three years, emerging themes have emerged and integrated with existing ones, suggesting that economic sustainability will remain a focal point that intersects with various other themes due to its complexity. This indicates that specialisation is likely to be observed in future research themes.