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PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY >

2025 , Vol. 44 >Issue 7: 1334 - 1350

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18306/dlkxjz.2025.07.002

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Evolution, meta-themes, and analytical frameworks for tourism destination research: A systematic literature review and bibliometric approach

  • YUAN Chao , 1 ,
  • QI Feng 1 ,
  • ZHANG Weiwei 1 ,
  • XU Linzeng , 2, 3, *
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  • 1. School of Business, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, Hunan, China
  • 2. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
  • 3. College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Received date: 2024-12-06

  Revised date: 2025-05-07

  Online published: 2025-07-25

Supported by

National Natural Science Foundation of China(42401286)

Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province(2023JJ30606)

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Abstract

Tourism destination is a core concept in tourism research and tourism practice, but the analysis of the trends, key directions, and theoretical bases of tourism destination research is not clear enough. In this case, neither researchers nor professionals have reached a consensus on the definition of a tourist destination. Although a few studies have conducted in-depth analysis of the keyword co-occurrence network and evolution of tourism destination research, there is a lack of coding, classification, and reflection of the research content. In addition, the exploration of the conceptual nature of tourism destination as a unit of analysis needs to be further developed to provide a fuller cognitive picture for the theorization of tourism destination. Therefore, this study used systematic literature review and bibliometric research methods to examine and reflect on the Chinese literature from 1998 to 2024. The results show that: 1) The research on tourism destinations can be divided into four stages, the abundance and depth of the research topics are deepening, and the co-occurrence map also shows a concentrated trend in the time series, among which tourism image, destination residents, and rural tourism are the topics with high attention. 2) The meta-themes of tourism destination research include 23 categories, which can be divided mainly into five levels: tourism destination image, marketing and brand; tourist perception, attitude, and behavior; rural tourism host and guest perception and culture; tourism destination patterns, processes, and mechanisms; and heritage tourism destination governance and residents' livelihood. 3) The research on tourism destinations is mainly carried out under the paradigm of tourism management and tourism geography, and the related theories of life cycle, glocalization, and social construction are insufficient to understand the complexity of tourism destinations, while the emphasis of social-material theory on networks, heterogeneous actors, and relationship effects provides another possibility for understanding the integrity and dynamics of tourism destination reproduction. This study aimed to clarify the genealogy of tourism destination research and deepen the theoretical exploration of the conceptualization of tourism destination.

Key words： tourism destinations; meta-themes; systematic literature review; social-material theory; Textometrica

Cite this article

YUAN Chao , QI Feng , ZHANG Weiwei , XU Linzeng . Evolution, meta-themes, and analytical frameworks for tourism destination research: A systematic literature review and bibliometric approach[J]. PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY, 2025 , 44(7) : 1334 -1350 . DOI: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2025.07.002

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