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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms 
of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0

1 Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
E-mail: lina.pileliene@vdu.lt
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2704-8314
2 Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia (corresponding author)
E-mail: ahmedalsharif07@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1364-3545

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2025-11-5-92-112

GOING SMART: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW OF SMART TOURISM, 
SMART DESTINATION, AND SMART HOSPITALITY RESEARCH

Lina Pilelienė1, Ahmed H. Alsharif2

Abstract. Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of scholarly investigations into tourist behaviour 
within smart tourism, destinations and hospitality. However, a notable research gap remains, as no prior studies 
have analysed all three terms – "smart tourism", "smart destination" and "smart hospitality" – concurrently. This 
study aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. In accordance with the 
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol and employing the  
VOSviewer software, a comprehensive examination of relevant documents from the Scopus database spanning 
2008-2024 was conducted. The analysis encompassed a total of 1,367 documents, which revealed a discernible 
increase in publications over the years. China emerged as the leading country in terms of publication output, 
contributing 352 publications that received 4,235 citations. Influential authors were identified, including  
Chung, N., Koo, C., Gretzel, U. and Buhalis, D. Highly cited articles and keywords associated with smart tourism, 
destinations and hospitality were also identified, including "smart tourism", "smart tourism destination", "smart city", 
"tourism industry" and "smart hospitality". Sustainability emerged as the most prolific journal, with a total of 88 
documents and 2,316 citations. This bibliometric analysis illuminates the contemporary landscape of smart tourism, 
smart destinations, and smart hospitality research, offering valuable insights and directions for future studies.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, IoT, Scopus database, smart tourism, smart destination, smart hospitality.

JEL Classification: O32, O33, C88

1. Introduction
In recent decades, there has been a marked transition 

in emphasis towards the domain of information and 
communication technologies (ICT) among both 
practitioners and academics. The term "smart" has 
emerged as a descriptor, leading to the integration of 
technology across physical and digital infrastructures 
(Ahmed et al., 2024a; Gretzel et al., 2015a). This 
concept encompasses technological, economic and 
social advancements that are driven by technologies 
which employ sensors, big data, open data, innovative 
connectivity methods, information exchange and 
reasoning processes (Goo et al., 2022). It is widely 
acknowledged that ICTs, the Internet of Things 
(IoT) and cloud computing play pivotal roles in 
this landscape (Del Chiappa & Baggio, 2015). 
Recognised as a revolutionary technology, the IoT is 
progressively gaining prominence in contemporary 
wireless telecommunication environments (Novera et 
al., 2022). In the last ten years, many industries have 
started using smart and IoT-based systems, which has 

created many new areas of research (Huda et al., 2024). 
This means that using IoT in tourism is now a really 
important topic (Novera et al., 2022). ICTs have caused 
big changes in the tourism and hospitality industry 
(Ahmed et al., 2025; Folgado-Fernández et al., 2023). 
Scientific advancements and the rise in popularity 
of high-tech trends are changing the way tourism  
service providers, tourists and stakeholders work, 
pushing the tourism sector to adopt new and 
technological solutions (Garanti et al., 2023). The use 
of smart tourism technologies, such as travel-related 
websites, social media, and smartphones in travel 
planning, is increasing and having a big impact on the 
travel industry (Huang et al., 2017).

The influence of information and communication 
technologies (ICTs) on tourism, and their anticipated 
future evolution, appears to be creating a new landscape 
for destination management (Ivars-Baidal et al., 
2019). Destinations across the globe are competing to 
meet the diverse needs of tourists by providing high-
quality services and distinctive features (Căruntu 



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& Diţoiu, 2014). In an increasingly globalised and 
highly dynamic environment, innovation is crucial for 
cities and tourist destinations to remain competitive 
(Del Chiappa & Baggio, 2015). An emerging trend 
is the adoption of smart technology by destinations 
to improve travel experiences (Sustacha et al., 2023). 
A smart tourism destination is described as a complex 
and dynamic ecosystem that integrates physical and 
digital components closely, evolving as a unified 
entity ( Jankova et al., 2023). Scholars Collado-
Agudo et al. (2023) emphasised that the smartness 
of a destination goes beyond merely implementing 
ICTs; it requires comprehensive managerial innovation 
that uses technology to improve the destination's 
competitiveness. This is achieved by promoting  
the efficient and sustainable use of resources, and 
by providing visitors with an enhanced experience.  
A meta-analysis of scientific literature suggests that 
technology has a positive impact on tourists' travel 
experiences when visiting smart destinations (Sustacha 
et al., 2023).

Hospitality can be defined as human conduct centred 
on interaction and relationship-building within the host-
guest encounter, with non-human factors also playing 
a significant role (Chau & Yan, 2021). In the context 
of tourism, hospitality and hospitableness are defined 
as the relationship between service providers and  
receivers within a commercial hospitality setting,  
forming a dyadic connection (Munasinghe et al., 2022). 
In the hospitality sector, the concept of "smartness" 
empowers hotels to engage in continuous information 
exchange throughout their operations, enabling them 
to adapt accordingly. This is particularly important 
as guests play a central role in this process, with 
dynamic interactions supporting personalisation, 
contextualisation of services and collaborative 
experience creation (Buhalis & Leung, 2018). 
Furthermore, consumers have a discernible expectation 
for smart technology to facilitate regular hotel  
operations and services, with potentially elevated 
expectations in this regard (Stylos et al., 2021).

The ongoing evolution of post-pandemic tourism, 
characterised by innovative transitions towards 
a technologically driven, safe, and health-conscious 
approach, instills systemic structural changes within 
the hospitality and related tourism sectors (Fusté-
Forné & Jamal, 2021). Despite extensive research 
into smart tourism, smart destinations and smart 
hospitality, a comprehensive literature review exploring 
research streams and outlining potential future  
research directions is lacking (Novera et al., 2022). This 
underscores a research gap in the field that could be 
addressed by generalising and categorising the diverse 
perspectives and outputs of researchers. A considerable 
number of bibliometric analyses pertaining to smart 
tourism have been published in academic literature 
(Chen et al., 2022; Johnson & Samakovlis, 2019; 

Madeira et al., 2023). These analyses encompass a range 
of areas, including smart tourism destinations (Iskender 
et al., 2022), the Internet of Things (IoT) in smart 
tourism (Novera et al., 2022), and smart hospitality 
(Krabokoukis, 2023). However, a systematic review of 
the literature reveals a paucity of studies that examine 
these concepts together.

A systematic analysis was conducted on documents 
from the Scopus (SC) database with "smart tourism"  
OR "smart destination" OR "smart hospitality" in their 
title, abstract and/or keywords. The objective of this 
analysis was to outline the existing trends of using  
"smart" in the tourism industry and to provide 
general directions for future smart tourism research.  
The identification of the most prominent countries and 
authors, the most prominent journals, and the most 
frequent author keywords will enable this study to be 
among the first to undertake a bibliometric review of 
smart tourism, smart destinations, and smart hospitality. 
This research will contribute to the existing body of 
scientific literature on tourism by identifying current 
trends and outlining research guidelines for scholars 
exploring the smart side of tourism, destinations or 
hospitality.

2. Methods
A plethora of review articles have been published, each 

with its own unique characteristics. These encompass 
bibliometric analysis, as demonstrated in studies by 
Ahmed et al. (2021); do Rosário Mira & de Jesus 
Breda (2021); Pilelienė et al. (2022); Pimonenko et al. 
(2021). An alternative approach involves conducting 
a systematic review and meta-analysis (Ahmed et al., 
2022b; Anup Singh et al., 2023; Folgado-Fernández 
et al., 2023). A theoretical and conceptual review 
was conducted (Devkota et al., 2022; Gretzel et al., 
2015b), and a literature review (content) analysis was 
performed (Ahmed et al., 2023b). Bibliometric reviews 
are categorised as either domain-based (Alsharif et 
al., 2024) or journal-based, as discussed by Paul &  
Bhukya (2021).

The present study adhered rigorously to the 
guidelines outlined in the Preferred Reporting Items 
for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 
protocol, as Moher et al. (2015) have detailed. The 
PRISMA Protocol is a widely recognised approach 
utilised in various fields to systematically extract data 
from databases such as Scopus or Web of Science 
(Alsharif & Isa, 2025; Alsharif et al., 2023b). Using 
a bibliometric analysis methodology, this study aimed 
to provide a concise yet comprehensive overview 
of global academic trends in the fields of "smart 
tourism", "smart destinations" and "smart hospitality".  
The investigation scrutinised various aspects, including 
prominent countries, authors, institutions, journals/
sources, highly cited papers and key keywords. These 



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indicators are vital for evaluating advancement in 
scholarly publications within this domain.

The primary objective of this study is to identify 
current trends related to the use of the term "smart" in 
the tourism industry, and to provide comprehensive 
guidance for future research in smart tourism. To this end, 
four research questions have been formulated to inform 
the analytical approach and provide a comprehensive 
overview of the existing scientific literature in this 
field. These questions were meticulously crafted to 
illuminate crucial areas of interest and contribute to the 
enhancement of knowledge in relevant fields, as follows:

RQ1: What is the annual growth of scientific 
publications in the realms of smart tourism, destination, 
and hospitality?

RQ2: Who are the notable entities in terms of  
a) countries, b) academic institutions, c) journals/
sources, and d) authors engaged in smart tourism, 
destination, and hospitality research?

RQ3: What are the most significant keywords found 
in selected articles related to smart tourism, destination, 
and hospitality?

RQ4: Which articles and review articles have garnered 
the highest number of citations in the fields of smart 
tourism, destination, and hospitality?

To address these research questions, this study begins 
by extracting documents from the SC database in June 
2024. Following the methodology set out by Alsharif 
and Isa (2025), the study will conduct a thorough 
bibliometric analysis to identify and list the most 
influential countries, academic institutions, journals 
and authors. Subsequently, a concise description of each 
analyzed parameter is provided. Visualisation maps are 
generated using the VOSviewer software, a tool known 
for simplifying bibliometric research across diverse 

fields (Ali et al., 2021; Alsharif et al., 2022; Khraiwish 
& Alsharif, 2024; Wang et al., 2024), including tourism 
(Koseoglu et al., 2016; Pilelienė et al., 2024; Pilelienė & 
Jucevičius, 2023), and hospitality (Davahli et al., 2020). 
It is noteworthy that VOSviewer has been employed 
in numerous studies to facilitate a comprehensive 
understanding of the developmental trajectory of the 
fields of smart tourism, hospitality, and destinations.

The following query was applied to the title, abstract, 
and keywords: "TITLE-ABS-KEY ("smart tourism" 
OR "smart destination" OR "smart hospitality") AND 
(LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, "English")) AND (LIMIT-
TO (DOCTYPE, "ar") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, 
"cp") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ch") OR LIMIT-TO 
(DOCTYPE, "re")) AND (LIMIT-TO (PUBSTAGE, 
"final"))".

Through this process, a total of 1536 documents were 
identified, all of which were published between 2008 and 
June 2024. Figure 1 demonstrates the selection process 
of relevant documents, as outlined below:
– Year of publication: 2008–June 2024
– Language: English 
– Document type: 675 articles, 514 conference 
papers, 135 book chapters, and 43 review articles.

After providing a screening procedure, a total of 
1367 documents were selected as suitable for the review.

3. Results
In accordance with the PRISMA procedure, a total 

of 1367 documents were identified as being suitable 
for analysis. The corpus of articles under scrutiny 
was published between 2008 and June 2024 in the 
SC database, and was found to encompass either the 
term "smart tourism", "smart destination" or "smart 

Figure 1. PRISMA process for extracting documents
 



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hospitality" in their respective titles, abstracts and/
or keywords. The annual number of articles and their 
cumulative growth are provided in Figure 2.

The search results obtained from the SC database 
indicated the review paper "Consequences of climate 
policy for international tourist arrivals in developing 
countries" (Gössling et al., 2008) as the primary source 
of relevant literature. This paper, published in 2008, 
analysed emerging climate policies in major tourism 
outbound markets, which have direct implications for 
the aviation sector and the potential consequences 
for travel costs and tourism demand. It was the first 
paper published in the SC database that met the search 
requirements. As of the date of data extraction, the 
paper has been cited 114 times. A thorough examination 
of the obtained results reveals that at the inception of 
the designated period, the researchers' engagement 
with the domain was found to be minimal. This initial 
absence of interest can be documented subsequently. It 
is therefore important to mention the conference paper 
entitled "Condition and Key Issues Analysis on the 
Smarter Tourism Construction in China", published in 
2012 by Huang et al. (2012), as one of the first works 
to introduce the concept of "smart" in this field. The 
number of publications increased steadily from nine 
papers in 2013 (two articles and seven conference 
papers) to 267 in 2022. 

From 2013 onwards, the researchers' interest began 
to intensify. A total of 10 documents were published 
in 2014, followed by 28 documents in 2015, 42 in 
2016, and 267 in 2022. The first half of 2024 accounts 
for 105 documents. Given that the year has not yet  
reached its conclusion, it is possible to posit the 
hypothesis that there is a constant (if not growing) 
level of interest among researchers in this field. The first 
decline occurred in 2023, when only 250 documents 
were published; however, this can still be regarded as 

growth when the whole analysed period is taken into 
consideration. 

At the inception of the research period, only one all-
open-access article analysing smart cities and mentioning 
smart tourism (Li et al., 2013) was published in 2013; 
while no all-open-access articles were published in 
2014. Since 2015, there has been an upward trend in 
the number of publications in this field that are available 
via open access. In 2015, four articles were published 
(three of which concerned smart tourism and one 
mentioned smart destinations), and this figure rose to 
four in 2016 (one of which concerned smart tourism, 
one concerned smart tourism destinations, and two 
mentioned smart destinations). During the research 
period, the all-open-access category accounted for 
451 documents, constituting approximately 33 percent 
of the sample.

3.1 Prominent countries  
and academic institutes

The research results indicated that 
88 contributors had published at least one article in 
the domain. Three countries – China, Spain and South 
Korea – have published more than 100 documents each 
(see Table 1). Six countries (Italy, India, the United  
States, Indonesia, Portugal and the United Kingdom) 
were found to have between 50 and 100 documents. 
Twenty-six countries (Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, 
Greece, Turkey, Japan, the Russian Federation, Australia, 
Macao, Brazil, Morocco, Canada, Germany, Austria, the 
United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Iran, France, Poland, 
Switzerland, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Vietnam, 
Serbia and Croatia) had more than 10 documents each. 
The remaining 40 countries published between two  
and 10 documents each, while 13 countries published 
just one.

Figure 2. The annual and accumulative publications 

Note: published in Q1 and Q2 of 2024

 



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A consideration of the citations reveals that the 
most prolific countries, those publishing in excess of 
100 articles, have been cited in excess of a thousand 
times each. However, China has the highest number 
of publications (352), with 4235 citations, while the 
United States, with 73 publications (sixth in the group), 
has received 5127 citations. A total of 352 documents 
were published by researchers representing China.  
Of these, 243 were cited at least once, which indicates 
that almost 31 percent of the documents were not  
cited. The country with the highest number of 
publications was South Korea, which published 
103 articles (third in the group) that accumulated 
5274 citations. For instance, Italy published a similar 
number of articles (96 articles, fourth in the group) and 
was cited 2192 times. 

Researchers representing Greece and Taiwan have 
published 37 documents each. However, a review of 
the literature reveals that papers published by Greek 
researchers have been cited 187 times (5.05 citations 
per document), while papers published by Taiwanese 
authors have been cited 1249 times (33.76 citations per 
document) until the date of the review. A consideration 
of the average citations per article reveals that  
Australia (ACpD = 116.96) was the only country 
to exceed 100, with the United States ranking 

second (ACpD = 70.23). Conversely, documents 
published by the Russian Federation (ACpD = 9.67),  
Portugal (ACpD = 9), India (ACpD = 8.64),  
Japan (ACpD = 6.48), Indonesia (ACpD = 5.56), and 
Greece (ACpD = 5.05) were cited less than 10 times on 
average.

The most prominent universities were identified 
in each analysed country. The most productive were 
found to be Kyung Hee University in South Korea 
(58 publications, 4,130 citations) and the Hong Kong 
Polytechnic University (35 publications, 948 citations). 
Moreover, Kyung Hee University was found to be the 
most cited university in the fields of smart tourism, 
smart destinations and smart hospitality, according 
to the number of citations. The University of South 
Australia was found to be second in terms of citations: 
Four articles from this university have accumulated 
1,385 citations. At the other extreme, Amity University 
(India) was cited only three times, despite having four 
articles.

3.2 Productive Journals
The subsequent stage in the bibliometric analyses 

is the identification of the most prominent journals.  
A total of 620 sources were identified, of which 

Table 1
The most prominent countries with a minimum of 20 documents

# Country TPs TCs ACpD Productive institution TPs TCs ACpD
1 China 352 4235 12.03 Wuhan Business University 16 16 1
2 Spain 130 3253 25.02 Universitat d'Alacant 24 1002 41.75
3 South Korea 103 5274 51.20 Kyung Hee University 58 4130 71.21
4 Italy 96 2192 22.83 Università del Salento 9 380 42.22

5 India 76 657 8.64
Amity University 4 3 0.75
University of Kota 4 7 1.75

6 United States 73 5127 70.23 University of Southern California 11 506 46
7 Indonesia 66 367 5.56 Bina Nusantara University 16 27 1.69
8 Portugal 65 585 9 Universidade de Lisboa 12 170 14.17

9 United 
Kingdom 59 2756 47.22 Bournemouth University 7 1201 171.57

10 Malaysia 45 1007 22.38 Universiti Sains Malaysia 7 674 96.29
11 Hong Kong 40 1081 27.03 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 35 948 27.09
12 Taiwan 37 1249 33.76 I-Shou University 5 442 49.11
13 Greece 37 187 5.05 University of Piraeus 9 56 6.22
14 Turkey 33 726 22 Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi 3 525 175
15 Japan 31 201 6.48 Nara Institute of Science and Technology 9 67 7.44

16 Russian 
Federation 24 232 9.67

Saint Petersburg National Research University 
of Information Technologies, Mechanics and 
Optics University ITMO

4 43 10.75

St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the 
Russian Academy of Sciences 4 42 10.5

17 Australia 24 2807 116.96 University of South Australia 4 1385 346.25
18 Macau 23 710 30.87 University of Macau 11 367 33.36
19 Brazil 22 369 16.77 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte 7 161 23

Note: data extracted from the Scopus database on the 25th of June 2024. Abbreviations: TPs – total publications; TCs – total citations; ACpD – average 
citations per document



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21 journals were found to have published a minimum 
of 10 documents related to smart tourism, smart 
destination, and smart hospitality. The leading journal 
in the field of smart tourism, smart destination and 
smart hospitality was identified as Sustainability 
Switzerland, with a total of 88 papers and 2,316 citations  
(see Table 2). The most frequently cited paper 
(151 citations) of this journal was "Smart city and smart 

tourism: A case of Dubai" (Khan et al., 2017), a text 
authored by four scholars representing two institutions 
from two countries: three authors from the United  
Arab Emirates and one from the Republic of Korea.

The second most productive journal was found to be 
the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series, 
with 42 conference papers and 93 citations at the time 
of the review. 

Table 2
The ten most prominent journals in smart tourism, destination, and hospitality with a minimum of four documents

# Journal/ Source TPs TCs Title of the most cited document by the end of 2022 Times 
cited Year

1 Sustainability (Switzerland) 88 2316 "Smart city and smart tourism: A case of Dubai" 151 2017

2 ACM International Conference Proceeding 
Series 42 93 "Smart tourism in cities: Exploring urban 

destinations with audio augmented reality" 29 2018

3 Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems 25 26 "Toward a Smart Tourism Recommender System: 
Applied to Tangier City" 6 2018

4 Springer Proceedings in Business and 
Economics 24 93

"Big Data Analytics in Smart Tourism Destinations. 
A New Tool for Destination Management 
Organizations? "

25 2019

5

Lecture Notes in Computer Science 
(Including Subseries Lecture Notes 
in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes 
in Bioinformatics)

23 143 "A blockchain based system to ensure transparency 
and reliability in food supply chain" 47 2019

6 Advances in Intelligent Systems and 
Computing 23 131 "Social smart destination: A platform to analyze user 

generated content in smart tourism destinations" 28 2016

7 Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management 18 1577 "SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: 

Empowering co-creation of value" 372 2015

8 International Journal of Tourism Cities 18 779 "Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems for tourism 
destination competitiveness" 396 2016

9 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 
Technology 18 532 "How smart tourism technologies affect tourist 

destination loyalty" 91 2020

10 Journal of Physics: Conference Series 18 71 "Convergence of IOT in tourism industry: 
A pragmatic analysis" 28 2021

11 Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 17 643 "Blockchain technology for smart city and smart 
tourism: latest trends and challenges" 145 2021

12 Tourism Review 15 1556 "COVID-19: potential effects on Chinese citizens’ 
lifestyle and travel" 524 2021

13 Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies 15 17 "Analysis of scientific production- smart tourism 
destination, technology and sustainability" 6 2020

14 Communications in Computer and 
Information Science 14 37 "Condition and Key Issues Analysis on the Smarter 

Tourism Construction in China" 20 2012

15 Current Issues in Tourism 13 450 "Smart destinations and the evolution of ICTs: 
a new scenario for destination management? " 218 2019

16 International Journal of Contemporary 
Hospitality Management 11 514 "Artificial intelligence: a systematic review of 

methods and applications in hospitality and tourism" 78 2022

17 Mobile Information Systems 11 44 "Marketing Strategy of Rural Tourism Based 
on Big Data and Artificial Intelligence" 12 2022

18 Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes 11 40
"Smartness and social networks as shapers of the 
tourism industry: What is being done in Academia 
in this intersection?"

9 2019

19
Proceedings of SPIE – The International 
Society for Optical Engineering 11 2

"Real-time value of tourist big data: A case study of 
Red-river Canyon Rafting scenic spot" 1 2022

"Design of the smart scenic spot service platform" 1 2015

20 Information Technology and Tourism 10 679 "The digital revolution in the travel and tourism 
industry" 277 2020

21 Tourism Management Perspectives 10 527
"New technologies in tourism: From multi-
disciplinary to anti-disciplinary advances and 
trajectories"

198 2018

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25th of June 2024. Abbreviations: TPs – total publications; TCs – total citations



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The Journal of Destination Marketing and 

Management and the Tourism Review must be 
mentioned based on the number of citations.  
The Journal of Destination Marketing and Management 
has published 18 articles that have been cited  
1,577 times. The most cited article on the analysed 
topic, "SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: 
Empowering the co-creation of value" (Buhalis & 
Foerste, 2015), which has been cited 372 times.  
The present article was authored by Dimitrios Buhalis 
and Marie Foerste, representing the School of Tourism 
at Bournemouth University, United Kingdom. The 
journal Tourism Review, which contains 15 documents 
in the analysed domain, has been cited 1,556 times. 
The mostly cited article, "COVID-19: potential effects 
on Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and travel" (Wen et al., 
2021), with 524 citations, was written by four authors 
representing four different institutions from three 
countries: Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, and the 
University of Western Australia, Perth from Australia, 
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 
Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey, and Universiti 
Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. 

Among the highly cited journals, the International 
Journal of Tourism Cities was identified, with 
18 articles and 779 citations. The article 'Smart tourism 
destinations: ecosystems for tourism destination 
competitiveness' has been cited 396 times. This 
article was written by three authors representing one 
institution: the School of Tourism at Bournemouth 
University in the United Kingdom. 

The journals Information Technology and Tourism, 
with 10 published articles, and the Asia Pacific  
Journal of Tourism Research, with 17 articles, are also 
highly influential. Articles published in these journals 
have been cited 679 and 643 times, respectively.  
The article, entitled "The digital revolution in the travel 
and tourism industry" (Pencarelli, 2020), was authored 
by Tonino Pencarelli, representing the University 
of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy. As of yet, the article has 
accumulated a total of 277 citations. While "Blockchain 
technology for smart city and smart tourism: latest 
trends and challenges" (Nam et al., 2021), published in 
Information Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research 
and written by four authors: three from the American 
University of Sharjah, UAE, and one representing 
Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, UAE 
was cited 145 times until 25th of June 2024.

As the other extreme, out of 11 conference papers 
published in the Proceedings of SPIE – The International 
Society for Optical Engineering, only two have been 
cited and accumulated per 1 citation up to date.

3.3 Productive Authors
Within a specific scientific domain, numerous authors 

typically disseminate a solitary study, while a select 

group of prolific authors contribute a substantial 
number of publications. Lotka's Law stipulates that 
this phenomenon occurs (Andrés, 2009). The data  
found in the SC database indicated that 3414 authors 
contributed at least one article to the field of smart 
tourism, smart destination and smart hospitality. 
Therefore, according to Lotka's Law, there should 
be around 58 authors in the prolific author group 
(square root of 3414). The research results indicate 
that 57 authors have published a total of more than 
three articles, 89 authors have published three articles, 
305 authors have published two articles, and the 
remaining 2,966 authors have published only one  
article. Following a thorough review of the relevant 
literature, 20 authors were identified who had co-
authored a minimum of five publications, and five 
authors who had published a minimum of 10.

The most prominent authors (with a minimum of 
five publications co-authored) in the domain of smart 
tourism, smart destination and smart hospitality are 
provided in Table 3. A total of 20 prominent authors are 
represented, with five hailing from South Korea, four 
from Japan, three from Spain, two from Greece, and one 
each from the UK, Macao, the United States, China, 
Slovakia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Chung, N., from the Kyung Hee University in South 
Korea, has co-authored 31 articles in the domain of 
smart tourism, smart destination and smart hospitality, 
and as of the day of the analysis, his articles had been 
cited 1,780 times. Nevertheless, the author to whom 
the greatest number of citations were directed was Koo 
C., representing Kyung Hee University in South Korea. 
His 26 articles were cited 2,735 times. Among the 
most cited authors, Gretzel, U. from the University of 
Southern California, United States, with 12 publications 
and 2063 citations, and Buhalis, D., with 9 publications 
and 1567 citations, are to be mentioned. As 20 authors 
were found to have a minimum of six publications each, 
the range of their citations is from 2735 (Koo, C.) to 
40 (Lim, C.). Consequently, it can be deduced that 
the substantial number of publications enhances the 
likelihood of an author being cited; nevertheless, it is 
not the sole determining factor in this regard. 

3.4 Keywords
In the present study, a comprehensive analysis of 

co-occurring author keywords was performed using 
VOSviewer software (Ahmed & Salmi, 2024; Ahmed 
et al., 2024b). A total of 3148 keywords were identified 
by authors publishing their research related to smart 
tourism, smart destination, and smart hospitality.  
In accordance with Zipf 's law (Ito et al., 2023), it was 
determined that the most frequently utilised keywords 
in the research should amount to a minimum of 56, 
which is the square root of 3,148. A total of 53 keywords 
were identified that satisfied the criteria, with each 



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appearing a minimum of 10 times. However, the 
lowest occurrence limit was set to 6 in order to more 
accurately reflect the terminology employed in the field.  
The present analysis concentrated on 103 keywords that 
appeared a minimum of six times within the sample, thus 
ensuring a robust dataset for examination. The author's 
keyword co-occurrences were analysed to evaluate the 
thematic trends within the specific domain of "smart" 
in relation to tourism, hospitality, and destination. The 
results of this analysis are illustrated visually in Figure 3, 
providing a clear illustration of these findings.

A thorough examination of the results from 
a temporal standpoint has enabled the identification 
of several trends. A retrospective analysis of earlier 
research (i.e., 2019, 2020) reveals that authors 
primarily concentrated on mobile applications, data 
mining, tourism experience, tourist behaviour, and 
rural tourism. However, starting from 2021, there has 
been a notable shift in the focus of researchers towards 
smart destinations, smart tourism destinations, smart 
cities, recommender systems, social media, information 
and communication, and digital tourism. The focus 
also shifted to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the 
spotlight turned to machine learning, deep learning, 

artificial intelligence, virtual reality and sustainable 
development.

All 103 of the identified keywords were checked for 
repetition bias, which could be caused by the use of 
the keyword in its singular or plural form (Halsharif 
& Pilelienė, 2023; Pilelienė & Jucevičius, 2023). 
After repetitive keywords were grouped, it was found 
that 90 keywords had occurred at least six times. The 
number of occurrences of author keywords and total 
link strengths are provided in Table 4.

Several insights can be envisaged when considering 
"smart" in the context of tourism. The top keywords are 
"smart tourism" (607 occurrences), "smart city/cities" 
(130 occurrences), "smart tourism destination(s)" 
(92 occurrences) and "smart destination(s)" 
(89 occurrences). "Smart tourism technology" appears 
30 times, emphasising the importance of "smartness" 
in the analysed context. Also, variations of the keyword 
"smart", such as "smart tourism city" (8 occurrences) 
and 'smart tourist destination' (7 occurrences), can be 
found among the keywords most frequently used by 
authors. It should be noted that one of the keywords 
used in this study, "smart hospitality", was found only 
17 times, with a total link strength of 26. Therefore, 

Table 3
The most prominent authors

# Author's name H-index TPs TCs Author’s SC ID Affiliation Country
1 Chung, N. 42 31 1780 56719190700 Kyung Hee University South Korea
2 Koo, C. 39 26 2735 16401903700 Kyung Hee University South Korea
3 Law, R. 88 14 682 7201502135 University of Macau Macau

4 Gretzel, U. 51 12 2094 6506950250 University of Southern 
California United States

5 Ivars-Baidal, J.A. 21 11 752 6507624878 Universitat d'Alacant Spain
6 Buhalis, D. 71 9 1614 6603014980 The Business School at BU UK

7 Femenia-Serra, F. 9 9 556 57202498537 Universidad Complutense de 
Madrid Spain

8 Yasumoto, K. 23 9 67 7203026208 Nara Institute of Science and 
Technology Japan

9 Matsuda, Y. 10 9 67 57056904200 Nara Institute of Science and 
Technology Japan

10 Han, H. 10 8 772 56571869700 Kyung Hee University South Korea
11 Alepis, E. 21 8 50 57211584454 University of Piraeus Greece
12 Kontogianni, A. 5 8 50 57202323554 University of Piraeus Greece
13 Jwa, J.W. 5 8 42 6506052251 Jeju National University South Korea
14 Gajdošík, T. 9 7 95 57194875975 Matej Bel University Slovakia

15 Nam, K. 23 6 951 7203002244
Info
School of Business 
Administration 

United Arab 
Emirates

16 Celdrán-Bernabeu, 
M.A. 6 6 391 57196085052 Universitat d'Alacant Spain

17 Lee, H. 13 6 216 56564389800 Kyung Hee University South Korea
18 Hlee, S. 11 6 166 57110348500 Beijing Institute of Technology China
19 Arakawa, Y. 19 6 66 36095797300 Kyushu University Japan
20 Lim, C. 4 6 40 57193140141 Tokyo Institute of Technology Japan

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25nd of June, 2024. Abbreviations: TPs, total publication; TCs, total citations 



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research on smart hospitality can be identified as scarce 
and in need of more thorough research. 

A further group of keywords has been identified, which 
pertain to the utilisation of technologies within the 
tourism industry. In this regard, it is notable that keywords 
such as "big data" (79 occurrences), "internet of things/ 
IOT/ internet of things (IOT)" (70 occurrences), 
"ICT/ information and communication technology/ 
ICTS/ information communication technologies" 
(58 occurrences), and "artificial intelligence/ AI" 
(43 occurrences) are present within the TOP10 of the 
list. Also, "augmented reality / augmented reality (AR)" 
(31 occurrences), "social media" (25 occurrences), 
"smart technology(ies)" (23 occurrences) and "mobile 
application(s)" (22 occurrences) can be found as 
emergent. The general technology-related keywords 
"innovation" and "technology" were each mentioned 
29 times. Other important technology related 
keywords were: "virtual reality" (16 occurrences), 
"recommender system" (15 occurrences), "data mining" 
and "machine learning" (14 occurrences each), "digital 
transformations" (13 occurrences), "cloud computing" 
(10 occurrences), "digitalization" (9 occurrences), 
"NFC", "smart", "tourism 4.0" (8 occurrences each), 
"5G", "big data analytics", "GIS", "information 
technology", "location-based services", "smartness", 

"social network", "social network analysis" and "user 
experience" (7 occurrences each), "context awareness", 
"network analysis", "personalization", "recommender 
systems", "smartphone", "technology adoption" and 
"technology readiness" (6 occurrences each). Such 
keywords as "e-tourism/ etourism" (25 occurrences) 
and "digital tourism" (8 occurrences), relating tourism 
to technologies, were also attached to this group. 
Therefore, given the range of technology-related 
keywords, it is reasonable to assume that the topic is 
broad and attracting significant researcher interest.

The third group of keywords can be named as 
"general". To this keyword-group such keywords as 
"tourism" (96 occurrences), "tourism experience" 
(18 occurrences), "destination management" 
(17 occurrences), "governance" (16 occurrences), 
"tourism industry" (15 occurrences), "cultural 
heritage", "tourist experience", "tourism management" 
(14 occurrences each), "co-creation" and "hospitality" 
(12 occurrences each), "value co-creation" 
(11 occurrences), "destination" and "overtourism" 
(10 occurrences each), "competitiveness", "rural tourism", 
"tourism destination", "tourists" (9 occurrences each), 
"tourism development" (8 occurrences), "accessibility", 
"crowdsourcing", "revisit intentions", "stakeholders", 
and "tourism planning" (7 occurrences each), "cultural 

Figure 3. Snapshot of authors' keywords with six occurrences at least
 



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tourism", "destination image", "destination marketing", 
"emotion recognition", "management", and "tourism 
competitiveness" (6 occurrences each) can be attached. 
Also, "Covid-19" (26 occurrences) can be attached 
to this group: although not being tourism-specific, it 

had a great impact on the industry. Therefore, despite 
growing researcher interest in smart tourism, smart 
destinations and smart hospitality, general tourism-
related topics remain relevant. Merging these topics 
with the use of technology could broaden the scope of 

Table 4
Top 90 authors' keywords with 6 occurrences of at least

# Authors’ keywords Occ TLS # Authors’ keywords Occ TLS
1 smart tourism 607 887 46 overtourism 10 24

2 tourism 96 194 47 competitiveness  
9 22

3 smart city/ smart cities 130 284 48 digitalization 9 21
4 smart tourism destination(s) 92 163 49 rural tourism 9 12
5 smart destination(s) 89 173 50 tourism destination 9 19
6 big data 79 153 51 tourists 9 17
7 internet of things/ IOT/ internet of things (IOT) 70 164 52 digital tourism 8 21

8 ICT/ information and communication technology/ 
ICTS/ information and communication technologies 58 152 53 literature review 8 19

9 sustainability 44 109 54 NFC 8 19
10 artificial intelligence/ AI 43 97 55 smart 8 22
11 sustainable tourism 33 63 56 smart tourism city 8 14
12 augmented reality / augmented reality (AR) 31 76 57 systematic literature review 8 13
13 smart tourism technology(ies) 30 34 58 systematic review 8 26
14 innovation 29 60 59 tourism 4.0 8 24
15 technology 29 73 60 tourism development 8 13
16 covid-19 26 54 61 5G 7 13
17 e-tourism/ etourism 25 50 62 accessibility 7 18
18 social media 25 43 63 big data analytics 7 21
19 smart technology(ies) 23 61 64 crowdsourcing 7 15
20 mobile application(s) 22 39 65 GIS 7 13
21 blockchain 20 44 66 information technology 7 13
22 bibliometric analysis 19 51 67 location-based services 7 10
23 sustainable development 19 36 68 revisit intention 7 11
24 deep learning 18 35 69 sharing economy 7 12
25 tourist experience 18 44 70 smart tourist destination 7 14
26 destination management 17 38 71 smartness 7 20
27 smart hospitality 17 26 72 social network 7 18
28 governance 16 43 73 social network analysis 7 11
29 virtual reality 16 32 74 stakeholders 7 12
30 recommender system 15 28 75 tourism planning 7 16
31 tourism industry 15 27 76 user experience 7 14
32 cultural heritage 14 27 77 case study 6 14
33 data mining 14 25 78 context awareness 6 11
34 machine learning 14 34 79 cultural tourism 6 12
35 tourism experience 14 27 80 destination image 6 8
36 tourism management 14 20 81 destination marketing 6 9
37 digital transformation 13 22 82 emotion recognition 6 18
38 bibliometric(s) 12 35 83 management 6 19
39 co-creation 12 23 84 network analysis 6 9
40 hospitality 12 31 85 personalization 6 17
41 sentiment analysis 11 18 86 recommender systems 6 17
42 value co-creation 11 19 87 smartphone 6 7
43 China 10 17 88 technology adoption 6 17
44 cloud computing 10 16 89 technology readiness 6 9
45 destination 10 20 90 tourism competitiveness 6 12

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25th of June 2024. Abbreviations: TLS – total link strength; Occ – Occurrences



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analysis in this field and provide a more comprehensive 
overview.

Also, during the analysis several sustainability-related 
keywords occurred: "sustainability" (44 occurrences), 
"sustainable tourism" (33 occurrences), "sustainable 
development" (19 occurrences), and "sharing economy" 
(7 occurrences) indicating the scope of researcher 
attention. Sustainability issues are being researched by 
scholars for many years, and their significance is still 
growing.

The last group of keywords can be identified as 
method-related group. In this group the authors 
identified such keywords as "bibliometric analysis" 
(19 occurrences), "bibliometric(s)" (12 occurrences), 
"sentiment analysis" (11 occurrences), "literature 
review", "systematic literature review" and "systematic 
review" (8 occurrences each), "case study" 
(6 occurrences). It is evident that the latter keywords 
bear no direct relation to tourism; consequently, they 
cannot be regarded as domain-specific. Nevertheless, 
the indication of the methodology employed in a study 
can facilitate the expeditious identification of relevant 
studies by researchers. 

Ultimately, the keyword China was not associated 
with any of the groups as it was deemed to be content-
specific and irrelevant to the study.

3.5 Citations (Documents)
Citation analysis was used to identify the articles 

that have attracted the most interest from researchers  
in the fields of smart tourism, smart destinations 
and smart hospitality. It can be assumed that articles 
that attract the most attention from researchers can 
be regarded as the most relevant and informative. 
Additionally, citation analysis is intended to provide 
guidelines for scholars seeking to contribute to the 
development of the field.

As indicated by the information contained within 
the SC database, the articles selected for inclusion in 
the analysis have been cited a total of 8,164 times. As 
demonstrated in Figure 1, 329 articles (out of 1,367) 
have not been cited as of the date of the review. In order 
to ascertain the number of publications that would 
be suitable for the analysis, a square root of 25,081  
was extracted. This indicated that publications 
that had been cited more than 158 times would be 
regarded as suitable. The analysis of the data revealed 
that a total of 25 articles had been cited on more than  
158 occasions. The present study drew upon a corpus of 
25 publications (see Table 5).

A single article was identified as having been cited 
in excess of one thousand times. The most frequently 
cited publication in this field was identified as "Smart 
tourism: foundations and developments" (Gretzel 
et al., 2015a) with 1106 citations. The second most 
cited publication was "Internet of Things and Big Data 

Analytics for Smart and Connected Communities" 
(Sun et al., 2016) with 694 citations, and "COVID-19: 
potential effects on Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and travel" 
published in "Tourism review" was the third (Wen 
et al., 2021). Six publications were cited from 300 to 
500 times: "Conceptual foundations for understanding 
smart tourism ecosystems" (Gretzel et al., 2015b) 
was cited 471 times, "Technology in tourism-from 
information communication technologies to eTourism 
and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence 
tourism: a perspective article" (Buhalis, 2019) was cited 
421 times, "Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems 
for tourism destination competitiveness" (Boes et 
al., 2016) was cited 396 times, "Tourists' intention 
to visit a destination: The role of augmented reality 
(AR) application for a heritage site" (Chung et al., 
2015) – 392 times, "SoCoMo marketing for travel and 
tourism: Empowering co-creation of value" (Buhalis 
& Foerste, 2015) was cited 372 times, "The concept of 
smart tourism in the context of tourism information 
services" (Li et al., 2017) was cited 319 times, and 
"The use of social media in travel information search" 
(Chung & Koo, 2015) has reached 311 citations.  
The following fifteen publications, which have  
been cited most frequently, have accumulated up to 
300 citations between them. 

Out of the 25 most cited publications (cited more 
than 158 times), 4 were co-authored by Buhalis, D.: 
"Technology in tourism-from information 
communication technologies to eTourism and smart 
tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: 
a perspective article" (Buhalis, 2019) accumulated 
421 citations, "Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems 
for tourism destination competitiveness" (Boes et 
al., 2016) – 396 citations, "SoCoMo marketing for 
travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation of value" 
(Buhalis & Foerste, 2015) – 372 citations, and "Smart 
hospitality – Interconnectivity and interoperability 
towards an ecosystem" (Buhalis & Leung, 2018) has 
accumulated 263 citations so far. As demonstrated by 
the results, one of the publications under discussion 
was authored solely by Buhalis, D., with him serving as 
the primary author in two of them. Consequently, the 
scholar can be recognised as one of the most prominent 
authors in the field. 

Further, 3 publications were co-authored Koo, C. 
(Koo, C. has co-authored 26 publications in the field up to 
date): "Smart tourism: foundations and developments" 
the most cited publication with 1106 citations so far 
(Gretzel et al., 2015a), "Conceptual foundations for 
understanding smart tourism ecosystems" (Gretzel 
et al., 2015b) and "The use of social media in travel 
information search" cited 311 times (Chung & Koo, 
2015); 2 by Chung, N. (totally, this author coauthored 
31 documents in the field): "Tourists' intention to 
visit a destination: The role of augmented reality (AR) 
application for a heritage site" has been cited 392 times 



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(Chung et al., 2015) and "The use of social media in travel 
information search" (Chung & Koo, 2015); 2 by Gretzel, 
U.: "Smart tourism: foundations and developments" 
(Gretzel et al., 2015a), "Conceptual foundations for 
understanding smart tourism ecosystems" (Gretzel 
et al., 2015b). The interconnectedness among these 
authors is depicted in Figure 4.

3.6 Bibliographic Coupling
Bibliographic coupling is defined as "a single item of 

reference shared by two documents" (Kessler, 1963). 
In the context of science mapping, the analysis of links 
between documents is undertaken, with the strength of 
the link between bibliographically coupled documents 
serving to indicate trends in research ( Jarneving, 2007).

Table 5
The top cited document (minimum 158 citations)

# TCs Title of manuscript Journal Year
1 1106 "Smart tourism: foundations and developments" "Electronic Markets" 2015

2 694 "Internet of Things and Big Data Analytics for Smart and Connected 
Communities" "IEEE Access" 2016

3 524 "COVID-19: potential effects on Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and travel" "Tourism Review" 2021
4 471 "Conceptual foundations for understanding smart tourism ecosystems" "Computers in Human Behavior" 2015

5 421
"Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies 
to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: 
a perspective article"

"Tourism Review" 2020

6 396 "Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems for tourism destination 
competitiveness"

"International Journal of Tourism 
Cities" 2016

7 392 "Tourists' intention to visit a destination: The role of augmented reality 
(AR) application for a heritage site" "Computers in Human Behavior" 2015

8 372 "SoCoMo marketing for travel and tourism: Empowering co-creation 
of value"

"Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management" 2015

9 319 "The concept of smart tourism in the context of tourism information 
services" "Tourism Management" 2017

10 311 "The use of social media in travel information search" "Telematics and Informatics" 2015

11 299 "Smart tourism technologies in travel planning: The role of exploration 
and exploitation" "Information and Management" 2017

12 277 "The digital revolution in the travel and tourism industry" "Information Technology and 
Tourism" 2020

13 267 "Knowledge transfer in smart tourism destinations: Analyzing the effects 
of a network structure"

"Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management" 2015

14 266 "How smart is your tourist attraction?: Measuring tourist preferences 
of smart tourism attractions via a FCEM-AHP and IPA approach" "Tourism Management" 2016

15 263 "Smart hospitality – Interconnectivity and interoperability towards 
an ecosystem"

"International Journal of Hospitality 
Management" 2018

16 258 "Tourism analytics with massive user-generated content: A case study 
of Barcelona"

"Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management" 2015

17 253 "Creating value from Social Big Data: Implications for Smart Tourism 
Destinations"

"Information Processing and 
Management" 2018

18 241 "China's smart tourism destination initiative: A taste of the service-
dominant logic"

"Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management" 2013

19 218 "Smart destinations and the evolution of ICTs: a new scenario 
for destination management? " "Current Issues in Tourism" 2019

20 198 "New technologies in tourism: From multi-disciplinary to anti-
disciplinary advances and trajectories" "Tourism Management Perspectives" 2018

21 193 "Tourists’ Experiences with Smart Tourism Technology at Smart 
Destinations and Their Behavior Intentions" "Journal of Travel Research" 2020

22 181 "The experience co-creation in smart tourism destinations: a multiple 
case analysis of European destinations"

"Information Technology and 
Tourism" 2016

23 169 "Realizing the Potential of Internet of Things for Smart Tourism with 5G 
and AI" "IEEE Network" 2020

24 165 "The effect of the perceived risk on the adoption of the sharing economy 
in the tourism industry: The case of Airbnb"

"Information Processing and 
Management" 2020

25 163 "Developing a model for sustainable smart tourism destinations: 
A systematic review" "Tourism Management Perspectives" 2019

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25th of June 2024. Abbreviations: TCs – total citations



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3.6.1. Countries
Table 6 presents the link strengths indicating the 

degree of correlation between countries. The number 
of links between countries indicates the strength of 
the connection between them. Five country pairs were 
found to have more than 2,000 links: Italy and Spain 
(2,857 links); China and Spain (2,729 links); Spain 
and the UK (2,693 links); South Korea and the USA 
(2,394 links); and Portugal and Spain (2,176 links). The 
connection between these countries can be considered 

strong. Also, Brazil and Spain have a strong connection 
(1,948 links). The USA has no links with any other 
country and is located at the bottom of the list.

A consideration of the remaining countries on the 
list reveals the following statistics: Malaysia and Spain 
had 959 links, Australia and Spain had 826, and Japan 
and Spain had 781 links. In contrast, Turkey and the 
USA had only 660 links. The weakest link strength was 
observed to be between the Russian Federation and 
Spain, with a total of 399 links. Moreover, the United 

Figure 4. Snapshot of interconnectedness between the authors of the most cited documents

Note: colours indicate average citations of the documents of the author

 

Table 6
The top bibliographic coupling of countries with minimum twenty documents by country and 158 citations

# Country 1 Country 2 Links between items 1, 2
1 Italy Spain 2857
2 China Spain 2729
3 Spain UK 2693
4 South Korea USA 2394
5 Portugal Spain 2176
6 Brazil Spain 1948
7 Hong Kong UK 1624
8 India Spain 1446
9 UK USA 1263

10 Macau Spain 1128
11 Indonesia Spain 1106
12 Malaysia Spain 959
13 Australia Spain 826
14 Japan Spain 781
15 Greece Spain 688
16 Taiwan UK 682
17 Turkey USA 660
18 Russian Federation Spain 399
19 USA - -

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25th of June 2024



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States, as the first country, had no affiliations with other 
countries.

The link strength depicting the time span is presented 
in Figure 5. It is evident that if Italy, China, Spain, 
South Korea and Portugal dominated several years 
ago, the latest trends reveal the emergence of China as 
a dominant economic force.

3.6.2. Sources ( Journals)
In consideration of the predominance of journals, 

the number of links between two with a minimum 
of ten documents and 158 citations is provided in 
Table 7. Notably, "Asian Pacific Journal of Tourism 
Research" dominates the list: the journal was found 
to appear even in ten couples (either as the first or the 

second journal). The strongest link (453 connections) 
was found between "Asian Pacific Journal of Tourism 
Research" and "Journal of Hospitality and Torusim 
Technology", followed by "International Journal of 
Tourism Cities" and "Journal of Destination Marketing 
and Management" with 361 connections. "Current 
Issues in Tourism" and "International Journal of Tourism 
Cities" shared 321 connections. On the other extreme, 
the pair of "Journal of Destination Marketing and 
Management" and "Journal of Hospitality and Torusim 
Technology" has shared 288 connections, while the pair 
of "International Journal of Contemporary Hospitlaity 
Management" and "Journal of Hospitality and  
Torusim Technology" has 207 connections. In addition, 
a further two pairs of journals have been found to have 
fewer than 80 connections, as can be seen in Table 7.  

Figure 5. The snapshot of the bibliographic coupling of countries with minimum of 20 documents and 158 citations
 

Table 7
The top bibliographic coupling of journals with minimum of ten documents and 158 citations

# Source 1 Source 2 Links between items 1, 2
1 Asian Pacific Journal of Tourism Research Journal of Hospitality and Torusim Technology 453
2 International Journal of Tourism Cities Journal of Destination Marketing and Management 361
3 Current Issues in Tourism International Journal of Tourism Cities 321
4 Journal of Hospitality and Torusim Technology Tourism Review 318
5 Journal of Destination Marketing and Management Journal of Hospitality and Torusim Technology 288

6 International Journal of Contemporary Hospitlaity 
Management Journal of Hospitality and Torusim Technology 207

7 Tourism Management Perspectives Tourism Review 184
8 Sustainability (Switzerland) Tourism Review 78
9 Information Technology and Tourism Sustainability (Switzerland) 24

10 Tourism Review - -

Note: data extracted from Scopus database on 25th of June 2024



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It is evident that no links were indicated for the journal, 
"Tourism Review". The connections between these 
journals have been delineated, as illustrated in Figure 6.

4. Discussion
In their 2015 study, scholars Gretzel et al. identify 

the term "Smart" as a new buzzword that describes 
the technology-induced development. The concept 
of smart tourism has emerged in recent years, with  
the aim of providing solutions to address specific 
travel-related needs for tourists (Khan et al., 2017). 
The term "smart tourist destination" is derived from the 
concept of "smart city," signifying the implementation 
of the principles of smart city within the tourism 
sector. The concepts of smart cities, smart tourism, 
smart destinations, and smart hospitality emphasise 
"technology-based management practices that enhance 
the tourism experience as well as increase the efficiency 
of tourism organisations and/or destinations" (Buhalis 
et al., 2023). The aim of this review was to outline 
existing trends in the use of the term "smart" in the 
tourism industry, and to provide general directions 
for future smart tourism research. To achieve this, 
a bibliometric analysis was conducted by quantitatively 
analysing articles and review papers listed in the SC 
database over the past decade. Four research questions 
were formulated to contribute to establishing a clear 
research landscape of the domain. 

In answer to the first question, 1,367 documents 
were extracted from the SC database. Of these, 
675 were articles, 514 were conference papers, 135 were 
book chapters and 43 were reviews. Retrospective 

analysis revealed a constantly growing interest among  
researchers in the field. Starting with a single review 
paper in which smart tourism was mentioned in 
2008 (Gössling et al., 2008), the field evolved over the 
following decade, reaching a peak of 267 published 
documents in 2022. Given the increase in the number 
of publications, the field of smart tourism, smart 
destinations and smart hospitality can be considered 
attractive and worthy of further research.

In order to map the extent of research in the field, 
prominent countries, academic institutions, journals, 
and authors were identified. A total of 88 countries 
were identified as contributing to research in the 
field of "smart" in relation to tourism, hospitality and 
destinations; furthermore, 26 countries have published 
more than 10 articles each. With 352 published papers 
(more than a quarter of all the articles included in the 
review), China was identified as the most prominent 
country in smart tourism, smart destinations and 
smart hospitality research. However, bibliographic 
coupling revealed that China only paired with Spain 
(2,729 links). A different situation was found with 
Spain. Spain, with 130 published articles (9.5 per cent 
of all articles assessed), was found to be the second 
most productive country. Moreover, bibliographic 
coupling revealed that it was the first country in 
a pair with the United Kingdom (2,693 links) and 
the second country in pairs with Italy (2,857 links), 
China (2,729 links), Portugal (2,176 links), Brazil 
(1,948 links), India (1,446 links), Macao (1,128 links), 
Indonesia (1,106 links), Malaysia (959 links), Australia 
(826 links), Japan (781 links), Greece (688 links) and 

Figure 6. The snapshot of the bibliographic coupling of journals with minimum of ten documents and 158 citations

 



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the Russian Federation (399 links). Therefore, greater 
similarity in research trends can be expected between 
Spain and the other countries. Moreover, despite 
publishing the highest number of articles, China did not 
reach a leading position based on the average number 
of citations per document (ACpD – 12.03). The time 
span analysis revealed the emerging positions of India, 
Malaysia and Indonesia. However, the contribution of 
other European countries is weak.

Among the most prominent institutions, the 
University of South Australia is in a leading position 
based on average citations per publication. Having 
published four articles, the university has accumulated 
1,385 citations, an average of 346.25 per article. Kyung 
Hee University (South Korea), meanwhile, has been 
cited 4,130 times for its 58 documents (ACpD – 
71.21). Although the number of citations indicates the 
usefulness, impact and influence of a publication 
(Aksnes et al., 2019), the name of the university can 
also increase interest in a publication (Ahmed et al., 
2022a; Alsharif et al., 2023a; Pilelienė & Jucevičius, 
2023). The two most productive universities were 
Kyung Hee University in South Korea (58 documents, 
4,130 citations and an average of 71.21 citations per 
document) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University 
(35 documents, 948 citations and an average of 
27.09 citations per document). Also worthy of mention 
is Bournemouth University, a prominent institution in 
the United Kingdom. The seven documents published 
by this university have accumulated 1,201 citations, 
with an average of 171.57 citations per document.  
The results of this review prove that the number of 
citations does not depend on the number of articles 
published (Bornmann & Daniel, 2008).

The documents under scrutiny were located 
within 620 journals. A mere 21 of the journals under  
scrutiny have published in excess of 10 documents 
to date, while 453 journals have published a single 
document each. The broad range of journals suggests 
a dissemination of publishers and an absence of 
prominent journals in the domains of smart tourism, 
smart destination, and smart hospitality. Moreover,  
the most prominent journal Sustainability Switzerland 
(with 88 documents and 2,316 citations) does not 
even specify in the field of tourism research. Only ten  
(less than a half) journals of the TOP21 productive 
journals appeared to be tourism oriented: 
#7 Journal of Destination Marketing and Management  
(18 publications and 1,080 citations), #8 International 
Journal of Tourism Cities (18 publications and 
779 citations), #9 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 
Technology (18 publications and 532 citations), #11 Asia 
Pacific Journal of Tourism Research (17 publications and 
643 citations), #12 Tourism Review (15 publications 
and 1,556 citations), #15 Current Issues in Tourism 
(13 publications and 450 citations), #16 International 
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 

(11 publications and 514 citations), #18 Worldwide 
Hospitality and Tourism Themes (11 publications and 
40 citations), #20 Information Technology and Tourism 
(10 publications and 679 citations), and #21 Tourism 
Management Perspectives (10 publications and 
527 citations). It is evident that the intricacies and 
idiosyncrasies of smart tourism, smart destinations 
and smart hospitality are disseminated in the field of 
mobile and computational information technology, 
which scarcely reflects tourism trends, as opposed to 
tourism-related journals. Considering that many articles 
never get noticed and therefore cited (Caon et al., 
2020), careful choice of the journal for publishing must  
become one of the principal choices of the authors 
(Alsharif et al., 2021; Pilelienė & Jucevičius, 2023). 
Furthermore, field-related journals are encouraged to 
consider the emerging scope of smart tourism, smart 
destinations and smart hospitality, and to promote 
research and publications on these topics by announcing 
calls for papers on specific themes or special issues.

The review identified 57 scholars who had published 
more than three documents on the topic, and who 
were therefore considered to be the most productive 
authors. The most productive authors (with more 
than 5 documents) represent South Korea (Chung, N. 
with 31 documents and 1,780 citations, Koo, C. 
with 26 documents and 2,735 citations, Han, H. 
with 8 documents and 772 citations, Jwa, J.W. with 
8 documents and 42 citations, and Lee, H. with 
6 documents and 216 citations), Japan (Yasumoto, K. 
and Matsuda, Y. with 9 documents and 67 citations, 
Arakawa, Y. with 6 documents and 66 citations, and 
Lim, C. with 6 documents and 40 citations), and Spain 
(Ivars-Baidal, J.A. with 11 documents and 752 citations, 
Femenia-Serra, F. with 9 documents and 556 citations, 
and Celdrán-Bernabeu, M.A. with 6 documents and 
391 citations), Greece (Alepis, E. and Kontogianni, A. 
with 8 documents and 50 citations), the United Kingdom 
(Buhalis, D. with 9 documents and 1,614 citations), 
Macao (Lae, R. with 14 documents and 682 citations), 
United States (Gretzel, U. with 12 documents and 
2,094 citations), China (Hlee, S. with 6 documents and 
166 citations), Slovakia (Gajdošík, T. with 7 documents 
and 95 citations), and United Arab Emirates  
(Nam, K. with 6 documents and 951 citations). Based 
on the number of publications and citations, Chung, N., 
Koo, C., Gretzel, U. and Buhalis, D. can be recognised 
as the leading authors in this field.

The keyword analysis provided enabled the answering 
of the third question of this research. The review 
identified 103 author keywords that occurred six or 
more times; of these, 53 occurred at least ten times. 
During the analysed period, the keyword "smart tourism" 
occurred 607 times, "smart city/smart cities" 130 times, 
"smart tourism destination(s)" 92 times and "smart 
destination(s)" 89 times, while "smart hospitality" 
occurred only 17 times. Five groups of keywords were 



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identified to better define the scope: 1) smart focus;  
2) technology focus; 3) tourism management focus;  
4) sustainability focus; 5) method focus. As the 
academic discourse on an interdisciplinary approach 
to tourism has attracted the interest of the scholarly 
community (Cardoso et al., 2023), an analysis and 
grouping of author keywords revealed several research 
trends. Firstly, the authors can concentrate on smart 
tourism, smart destinations and/or smart hospitality 
in general, revealing the peculiarities of the scope, 
searching for new trends and providing their insights. 
It is submitted that this kind of research would serve to 
deepen and disseminate the domain-related knowledge. 
The second trend pertains to the technological 
dimension of tourism. Subsequent research has focused 
more on technological progress, the application of 
information and communication technologies, and 
data-based systems used in (smart) tourism, rather 
than tourism itself. The investigation of the role of 
technology in the creation of immersive and interactive 
customer experiences can offer valuable insights into 
the development of innovative tourism products 
and services (Maskuroh et al., 2022). Technological 
development and the digital revolution have become 
prominent drivers of society, and it is therefore 
important to consider the impact of technology on 
tourism. The third research trend pertains to the analysis 
of the aspects of general tourism or general management 
and their performance within the framework of smart 
tourism. The contemporary predicament confronting 
the tourism industry pertains to the evolving conduct 
of tourists (Abou-Shouk et al., 2023), a phenomenon 
that is concomitant with technological advancements. 
Furthermore, the development of this domain 
may be further encouraged by the creation of new 
definitions, such as "smart rural tourism", "smart 
tourism satisfaction" or "smart tourist experience". 
The final trend identified by the author's analysis of 
keywords is that of sustainability issues in the context 
of smart tourism. Sustainable tourism is frequently 
regarded as the prevailing paradigm that endeavours 
to modify conduct in order to accomplish sustainable 
development objectives (Nowacki & Niezgoda, 2023). 
This finding lends further credence to the notion 
that the increasing prevalence of smart technology 
in the tourism sector prompts the investigation of its 
potential ramifications on sustainable development  
(El Archi & Benbba, 2023). The keywords related to the 
methodology did not identify any novel trends in the 
domains of smart tourism, smart destination, or smart 
hospitality research. However, further research could be 
developed by elaborating on the strong methodological 
background.

A significant proportion of the TOP25 most cited 
articles were published in tourism-related journals, 
suggesting that the judicious selection of publication 

outlets can enhance visibility and generate interest 
among scholars in the field.

The review reveals that smart tourism, smart 
destinations and smart hospitality are evolving areas 
of tourism with significant potential for further 
investigation. However, to better define the field and 
establish its core principles, researchers are advised to 
clearly define the focus of their research. Concentrating 
on one area rather than scattering ideas across various 
fields would enable the development of a clear point 
of view and enhance the possibility of recognition. 
Moreover, it is recommended that the focus is placed 
on publishing in tourism-related journals. This would 
reinforce the chances of attracting the attention of 
researchers interested in the field. Also, an intriguing 
and inviting article title and the right keywords must 
be chosen (Ahmed et al., 2023a; Alsharif et al., 2024; 
Pilelienė & Jucevičius, 2023). Given the timeliness 
and emergence of the subject area, it is recommended 
that tourism researchers constantly follow and monitor 
technological developments that could contribute to 
changes in the tourism industry.

5. Conclusion, Limitations,  
and Future Directions

The study suggests several general conclusions.  
Firstly, the field of smart tourism, smart destinations and 
smart hospitality is emerging and attracting increasing 
attention from researchers. Initially, smart tourism was 
mentioned in a single review paper in 2008. Over the 
past 15 years, however, the scope has accumulated to 
1,367 documents. The steady growth of the publications 
has attracted significant interest from researchers, 
as evidenced by the increasing use of keywords, the 
emergence of new authors, and the rising number of 
citations.

The study revealed several countries, including China, 
Spain, South Korea and Italy, to be at the vanguard 
of publishing their research in the analysed field. 
However, the citation analysis indicated the United 
States, South Korea, China, Spain and Australia as 
the most influential. Consequently, the publication of 
a considerable number of articles does not necessarily 
guarantee a corresponding increase in citations.  
It is evident that the contribution and impact of 
European countries are inadequate.

A thorough analysis of author keywords revealed 
the distribution of research across five primary scopes:  
1) smart-focused; 2) technology-focused; 3) tourism 
management-focused; 4) sustainability-focused; 
5) method-focused. A subsequent citation analysis 
indicated that scholars predominantly focus on articles 
that emphasise smart aspects of tourism, destinations, 
and hospitality, technological aspects, and the 
broader context of tourism. In consideration of the 



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domain's novelty and interdisciplinarity, there is a high  
probability of the emergence of new technology-
related trends in the future. Additionally, the formation 
of novel connections with other scientific domains, 
such as management, marketing and sustainability, is 
anticipated. 

The study is constrained by several limitations. The 
research was built on the mapping of the occurrences 
of at least one of three keywords, namely "smart 
tourism", "smart destination", or "smart hospitality".  
It is important to note that some scholars do not indicate 
"smart" in their papers (title, abstract, or keywords), 

and as a result, some important articles analysing 
tourism, destination, or hospitality in a framework of 
ICTs or other technological solutions might have been 
omitted. Also, 45 publications were excluded from the 
analysis due to being written in a language other than 
English. However, these articles could have provided 
a broader view of researcher interests and directions 
in research. Additionally, the study only encompassed 
articles published on the SCOPUS database, so some 
influential articles or trends found in other scientific 
information databases (e.g., Web of Science) may have 
been overlooked.

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Received on: 09th of July, 2025 
Accepted on: 20th of August, 2025 

Published on: 13th of November, 2025