A Quantitative Analysis of Global Scientific Literature on Tourism and the Digital Economy: Moving Towards Sustainable Tourism
Abdul Rahman bin S Senathirajah
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Rasheedul Haque
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Salleh bin Abbas
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Majid bin Md. Isa
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Lester Naces Udang
Faculty of Liberal Arts, Shinawatra University, Thailand, & College of Education, University of the Philippines Diliman, Philippines.
Ganesh Ramasamy
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Hariharan N Krishnasamy
INTI International University, Malaysia,.
Abstract:
The rapid expansion of the digital economy has significantly enhanced the economies of all countries. The travel and tourism sector has been revolutionised by modern digital technology. It is expected that the digitalization of tourism will boost the travel and tourism sectors globally, surpassing GDP growth rates and returning to pre-pandemic levels by 2023. There are expectations that the tourism industry will move towards more inclusive economies and sustainable travel. Due to the growing volume of research in this field, the study presents and examines a range of published works on digital economy and tourism. Data for this study was obtained from the Scopus database in July 2023. The research identified 594 documents for further investigation based on the search phrase results. The VOS viewer was used in this investigation to display the data. This study examined key quantitative indicators such as publication growth, citation analysis, and research production. Since 2001, there has been a noticeable increase in the research on tourism and the digital economy. Expectedly, 1391 (92.38%) of the documents were authored by multiple individuals. Based on a detailed analysis of different countries, China is the top country in scientific publications, with 93 documents published, accounting for 11.88%. Gretzel et al. (2015) received the most citations, averaging 49.88 citations per year. An in-depth analysis is required in this research area due to the growing volume of literature on tourism and the digital economy.