Knowledge map of digital tourism: A bibliometric approach using CiteSpace

Abstract

Digital tourism is an essential product of the digital economy, which is significant in promoting sustainable tourism. The study aims to analyze the current research status of digital tourism with the CiteSpace tool. One thousand thirteen documents related to digital tourism, AI tourism, and tourism digitization in the Web of Science (WOS) database from 1991–2022 were collected. This study conducts bibliometric analysis to portray the knowledge map. Furthermore, this paper explores the publication years, co-occurrence of authors, institutions, subjects, research hotspots, and evolution of digital tourism research. The analysis findings revealed that social and environmental sciences are the core disciplines in digital tourism research. Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the foremost institution, and Tussyadiah and Wirtz are the authors with the highest contribution rate. Moreover, the results emphasized the frontier studies of digital tourism referring to technology, consumption, tourists’ reviews, and the progress of the tourism industry. In addition, China, Europe, and the United States should strengthen their digital tourism cooperation with Africa and the South America to promote the sustainable development of global tourism. Finally, the results implicate the future development trends of digital tourism. AcknowledgmentWe acknowledge all the authors involved in the creation of this paper: Chen Luo for providing the opportunity for this research and collaborative creation, and Dr. Songyu Jiang, Dr. Ruihui Pu, and Dr. Lin Li for providing creative ideas and collaborative division for this paper, and for funding the research. Dr. Hongmei Yang further provides the research direction and future in the development process of digital tourism.