Bibliometric Analysis of Research Interest in Rural Tourism
Abstract
Rural tourism is a form of tourism that takes place in non-urban areas and is characterized by traditional lifestyle, rural culture, and nature-based activities. Over time, its features drew attention not only to more and more visitors, but also to researchers, transforming it into one of the most active fields of scientific study. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the evolution of academic work in rural tourism and the main trends in this domain. Using VOS Viewer, we processed a number of 6,656 studies published between 1964 and 2022 and indexed by Scopus, the world’s largest database for academic journals. Results showed a growing interest in rural tourism, with almost 800 articles published each year over the last couple of years. Different European organizations (e.g. British universities) and scientific journals (e.g. Tourism Management) proved to be highly influential, and through most cited authors and documents have shaped the perspective of academic communities on rural tourism. Finally, the cluster analysis of documents, countries, and word frequency in abstracts, titles, and keywords, based on relevance scores and term frequencies, allowed the mapping of bibliometric networks. Consequently, links and interrelations between all these elements were highlighted, as well as specific timelines showing the exact year when researchers, from different parts of the world, decided to focus on certain issues related to rural tourism and thus, managed to convert them into popular subject areas of study.
References
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[30] Ruhanen, L., Weiler, B., Moyle, B.D., McLennan, C.L.J. 2015. Trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research: A 25-year bibliometric analysis. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(4), 517-535. DOI;10.1080/09669582.2014.978790
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[32] Sharpley, R. and Roberts, L. 2004. Rural tourism – 10 years on. International Journal of Tourism Research, 6(3), 119-124. DOI: 10.1002/jtr.478
[33] Singhania, O., Kumar, S., George, B. 2022. Interdependence and complementarity between rural development and rural tourism: A bibliometric analysis. Rural Society, 31(1), 15-32. DOI:10.1080/10371656.2022.2062198
[34] Van Eck, N. Waltman, L. 2010. Software survey: VOS viewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523-538. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3
[35] Xiao, H. and Smith, S.L. (2006). The making of tourism research insights from a social sciences journal. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(2), 490-507. DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2006.01.004
[36] Yang, Z., Cai, J., Sliuzas, R. 2010. Agro-tourism enterprises as a form of multi-functional urban agriculture for peri-urban development in China. Habitat International, 34(4), 374-385. DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.002
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[2] Barbieri, C. 2019. Agri-tourism research: A perspective article. Tourism Review, 75(1), 149-152. DOI:10.1108/TR-05-2019-0152
[3] Boyack, K., Klavans, R., and Börner, K. 2005. Mapping the backbone of science. Scientometrics, 64(3), 351-374. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-005-0255-6
[4] Bozok, D., Kılıç, S.N., and Özdemir, S.S. 2017. Bibliometric analysis of rural tourism on tourism literature. Journal of Human Sciences, 14(1), 187-202. DOI: 10.14687/JHS.V14/1.4274
[5] Butler, R.W. 1980. The concept of tourist area cycle of evolution: Implications for management of resources. Canadian Geographer, 24(1), 5-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0064.1980.tb00970.x
[6] Dimitrovski, D., Leković, M., and Joukes, V. 2019. A bibliometric analysis of Crossref agritourism literature indexed in Web of Science. Hotel and Tourism Management, 7(2), 25-37. DOI: 10.5937/menhottur1902025D
[7] Donthu, N., et al. 2021. How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285-296; DOI: 10.1016/j.busres.2021.04070.
[8] Egresi, I.O. 2002. Analysis of agritourism development in the New River Basin, North Carolina. MA Thesis, Appalachian State University, Department of Geography and Planning, Boone, North Carolina.
[9] Fernández Bellver, D. et al. 2023. Craft as a key factor in local development: Bibliometric analysis. Heliyon, 9, e13039. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13039
[10] Fleischer, A. and Tchetchik, A. 2005. Does rural tourism benefit from agriculture? Tourism Management, 26(4), 493-501. DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2003.10.003
[11] Guan, H. and Huang, T.Z. 2023. Rural tourism experience research: A bibliometric visualization review (1996-2021). Tourism Review, 78(3), 761-777. DOI: 10.1108/TR-03-2022-0147
[12] Hall, C.M. 2011. Publish or perish? Bibliometric analysis, journal ranking and the assessment of research quality in tourism. Tourism Management, 32(1), 16-27. DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.07.001
[13] Harzing, A.W. 2007. Publish or Perish. Available from https://harzing.com/resources/publish-or-perish
[14] Karali, A., Das, S., and Roy, H. 2021. Forty years of rural tourism research: Reviewing the trend, pattern and future agenda. Tourism Recreation Research DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2021.1961065.
[15] Khanra, S., Dhir, A., Kaur, P., and Mäntymäki, M. 2021. Bibliometric analysis and literature review of ecotourism: Toward sustainable development. Tourism Management Perspectives, 37 (8), 100777. DOI:10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100777
[16] Köseoğlu, M.A. et al. 2016. Bibliometric studies in tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 61, 180-198. DOI:10.1016/j.annals.2016.10.006
[17] Lane, B. 1994. What is rural tourism? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2(1-2), 7-21.DOI:10.1080/0966958940951080
[18] Lane, B. and Kastenholz, E. 2015. Rural tourism: The evolution of practice and research approaches towards a new generation concept? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 3(8-9), 1133-1156. DOI:10.1080/09669582.2015.1083997
[19] Leković, M., Cvijanović, D., Pantić, N., Stanišić, T. 2020. Evaluative bibliometric analysis of recent trends in rural tourism literature. Economics of Agriculture, 67(4), 1265-1282. DOI: 10.5937/ekoPolj2004265L
[20] Leong, L-Y. et al. 2021. Tourism research progress – a bibliometric analysis of tourism review publications. Tourism Review, 76(1), 1-26. DOI: 10.1108/TR-11-2019-0449
[21] Lulu, L., Ramachandran, S., Bidin, S., Subramanian, T., Chaoyi, C. 2023. A bibliometric analysis of residents’ perceptions in rural tourism development using CiteSpace. Tourism, Planning and Development. DOI:10.1080/21568316.2023.2209057.
[22] Marco-Lajara, B., Martinez-Falco, J., Milan-Tudela, L.A., Sanchez-Garcia, E. 2023. Analysis of the structure of scientific knowledge on wine tourism: A bibliometric analysis. Heliyon, 9(2), e13363. DOI:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13363
[23] McBurney, M.R. and Novak, P.L. 2002. What is bibliometric and why should you care? Proceedings from IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 20 September, Portland, OR, USA.
[24] Park, K., Phillips, W.J., Canter, D.D., Abbott, J. 2011. Hospitality and tourism research rankings by author, university and country using six major journals: The first decade of the new millennium. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 35(3), 381-416. DOI: 10.1177/1096348011400743
[25] Phillip, S., Hunter, C., and Blackstock, K. (2010). A typology for defining agritourism. Tourism Management, 31(6), 754-758. DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2009.08.001
[26] Priatmoko, S. et al. 2023. Understanding the complexity of rural tourism business: Scholarly perspective. Sustainability, 15(2), 1193; DOI: 10.3390/su15021193
[27] Ranjan, A. and Chowdhary, N. 2020. Bibliometric analysis on discussion of rurality in tourism literatures. Proceedings of the 1st International Expert Conference EKIF (Economics, Informatics): Challenges of the Future (pp. 194-207), 24 September 2020, Murska Sobota, Slovenia.
[28] Rauniyar, S., Awasthi, M.K., Kapoor, S., Mishra, A.K. 2021. Agritourism: structured literature review and bibliometric analysis. Tourism Recreation Research, 46(1), 52-70. DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2020.1753913
[29] Rosalina, P.D., Dupre, K., Wang, Y. 2021. Rural tourism: A systematic literature review on definitions and challenges. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 47, 134-149. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.03.001
[30] Ruhanen, L., Weiler, B., Moyle, B.D., McLennan, C.L.J. 2015. Trends and patterns in sustainable tourism research: A 25-year bibliometric analysis. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(4), 517-535. DOI;10.1080/09669582.2014.978790
[31] Ruiz-Real, J.L., Uribe-Toril, J., de Pablo-Valenciano, J. Gásquez-Abad, 2020. Rural tourism and development. Evolution in scientific literature and trends. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, 46(1), 1-25. DOI: 10.1127/1096348020926538.
[32] Sharpley, R. and Roberts, L. 2004. Rural tourism – 10 years on. International Journal of Tourism Research, 6(3), 119-124. DOI: 10.1002/jtr.478
[33] Singhania, O., Kumar, S., George, B. 2022. Interdependence and complementarity between rural development and rural tourism: A bibliometric analysis. Rural Society, 31(1), 15-32. DOI:10.1080/10371656.2022.2062198
[34] Van Eck, N. Waltman, L. 2010. Software survey: VOS viewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523-538. DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3
[35] Xiao, H. and Smith, S.L. (2006). The making of tourism research insights from a social sciences journal. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(2), 490-507. DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2006.01.004
[36] Yang, Z., Cai, J., Sliuzas, R. 2010. Agro-tourism enterprises as a form of multi-functional urban agriculture for peri-urban development in China. Habitat International, 34(4), 374-385. DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.002
[37] Yılmaz, I. 2019. Bibliometric analysis of bibliometric studies on tourism published in Turkey. Anais Brasileiros de Estudos Turisticos, 9, 1-9. DOI: 10.34019/2238-2238-2925.2019.v9.27111
[38] Zeng, L., Li, R.Y.M., Nuttapong, J., Sun, J., and Mao, Y. 2022. Economic development and mountain tourism research from 2010 to 2020: Bibliometric analysis and science mapping approach. Sustainability, 14(1), 562, DOI: 10.3390/su14010562
Published
2023-09-29
How to Cite
RĂCĂȘAN, Bianca Sorina et al.
Bibliometric Analysis of Research Interest in Rural Tourism.
Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, [S.l.], v. 14, n. 6, p. 2605-2625, sep. 2023.
ISSN 2068-7729.
Available at: <https://journals.aserspublishing.eu/jemt/article/view/8083>. Date accessed: 20 may 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.14505/jemt.v14.6(70).11.
Section
Article
Copyright© 2023 The Author(s). Published by ASERS Publishing 2023. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of CC-BY 4.0 license.