Bibliometric evaluation of global research on eco-tourism

Eco-tourism has been widely regarded as an innovative paradigm for the conservation and sustainable development and a new niche within the tourism industry. Studying eco-tourism from a bibliometric perspective can provide insights into the trends and hot issues in eco-tourism research, and eco-tourism practice, management, and academic development provide important theoretical support and practical guidance. Despite mounting concerns from academics and practitioners, the current research on eco-tourism is still fragmented. To fulfill the gaps in the current understanding of this topic, this study tries to explore and analyze global research trends and frontiers on eco-tourism in the past decades using a bibliometric approach. A total of 3982 publications with 61,148 references satisfied the search scheme. The results clearly exhibit the research evolution trajectory, including the publication outputs, geographical and periodical distribution, distribution of journal, authors, and institutions, as well as burst, co-occurrence, and co-citation analysis. The findings roundly reveal topic hot spots, novel ideas, and sustainable development trends of eco-tourism in a global context which presents an opportunity to grasp the march of knowledge and show the ways for the future development.