On the intellectual structure and influence of tourism social science research

Abstract

Tourism has grown rapidly over the past decades not only to become an industry with huge socio-economic implications, but also a field of scientific inquiry. Tourism research is characterized by numerous scientific works published in more than 250 journals such that it has matured as a field of academic inquiry (López-Bonilla & López-Bonilla, 2020; Xiao and Smith, 2006, Xiao and Smith, 2007). As a discipline progresses, there is a growing interest among its researchers to appreciate its underlying intellectual structure. Determining the types of knowledge that constitute a discipline, tracking the evolution of such knowledge, and determining why and how knowledge changes are triggered are key issues in analyzing scientific developments and the intellectual structure of a discipline (Qian et al., 2020). Such endeavors make it possible for scholars to codify the knowledge produced and accumulated over time by allowing for an appreciation of its conceptual, theoretical, and methodological basis and the extent of its intra- and inter-disciplinarity. It is therefore important for scholars to reflect periodically on the intellectual structure of their academic disciplines.