Exploring the Research Landscape of Marketing Communication in Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to map the current state of marketing communications studies in the tourism industry. In this article we used a bibliometric analysis technique. Scopus data indicated that there were 195 documents concerned with marketing communications in the tourism industry. Furthermore, data analysis was carried out using VOSviewer and Excel. This analysis involves identifying relevant keywords, co-occurrence analysis, citation analysis, and network visualization. Our findings provide an overview of research trends, prominent authors, influential journals, and key themes in the tourism marketing communications domain. The results highlight the growth in research output in this area and reveal emerging topics and research gaps. Moreover, this research uncovers collaborative networks and knowledge flows among researchers and institutions. This bibliometric analysis helped shed light on the dynamic nature of the tourism industry's marketing communications research landscape. This study serves as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and policy makers interested in advancing marketing communications strategies for tourism development. The practical implication of the findings is that by understanding research trends related to tourism marketing communication, tourism practitioners can adopt more effective marketing communication strategies to promote tourist destinations, increase interaction with customers, and gain a competitive advantage.