TOURISM SCIENCE ›› 2022, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (6): 106-124.

• Tourism Economy • Previous Articles    

A Research on the Evolution of Destination Research Themes,Hot Topics and Trends:A Scientific Knowledge Mapping Study

HUANG Guoqiong Ivanka1, WANG Xueji2, WONG Ipkin Anthony3   

  1. 1. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077,China;
    2. Joint Institute of Ningbo University and University of Angers, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315201, China;
    3. School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
  • Received:2021-07-08 Revised:2022-09-07 Online:2022-12-30 Published:2023-02-23

Abstract: Chinese domestic destination researches have accumulated a large repository of results after nearly three decades of investigation.However,it is not clear how the various themes of destination research are related to each other,and how the extant literature has contributed to the development and evolution of the destination research eco-system.Therefore,in this study,while reviewing the existing literature on destinations,2083 relevant articles published in China Social Science Index and Chinese Core Journals from 1992 to 2020 were selected from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure based on the bibliometric analysis method of scientific knowledge mapping.Destination-related research themes were systematically reviewed and analyzed.It found five primary categories of research topics: destination resources,destination image,rural tourism,destination resident impact,and visitor perception.In addition,it also found that destination research in China has gone through three stages as the nascent,booming,and self-adjusted stage.The fluctuations in destination research are driven by a combination of two forces: intrinsic concepts developments in academic research and extrinsic significant policies and events.By objectively reviewing the evolution of this body of knowledge,this study demonstrated the composition of the core body of knowledge for destination research and provides future research directions.

Key words: tourism destination, destination resources, destination image, rural tourism, science mapping

CLC Number: 

  • F592

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