Dispersal of tourist is a growing policy concern in Australia and New Zealand, as well as other tourist-dependent nations. However, the understanding of this field is limited. This paper summarises literature of the last three decades based on 58 shortlisted journal articles published between 1980 and 2019. Based on prior research, this paper contributes to the field by proposed an improved conceptual definition of tourist dispersal. Typical dispersal patterns are also explored, alongside with an outline of key intervening factors. For future researchers, we outlined new and old data collection methods, and also the corresponding analytical approaches. There is a growing trend to use more advanced tracking methods to address the limitation of prevailing approaches, such as tourist survey or travel diaries. Quantitative approaches have been the mainstay of research but qualitative approaches are also able to capture unique aspects of tourist psychology and motives to disperse. Significant gaps remain in existing knowledge and the potential for dispersal to improve destination fortunes and tourist experience are still unknown. Future research ought to combine various approaches by combining datasets and also methodologies.