Bibliometric analysis of bibliometric studies in the field of tourism and hospitality

Purpose This study aims to contribute to the relevant body of knowledge by examining the bibliometric studies related to tourism and hospitality indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) database from a bibliometric perspective (evaluative and relational techniques). Design/methodology/approach The WoS database was used to obtain studies to be reviewed. A total of 136 studies were analyzed and visualized in terms of evaluative and relational techniques, and a subject categorization was made. Findings “Tourism management” and “tourism and hospitality” are the two fields of research where bibliometric studies are carried out more frequently. Evaluative techniques were used in most studies while relational techniques, such as co-word, co-author, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling, were performed less. Relational techniques indicate that the words “bibliometric analysis” and “tourism” are frequently used together in the studies examined; the most common authorship cooperation is between China and USA. Research limitations/implications This study provides an overview of bibliometric studies in tourism and hospitality literature. It expands the previous literature and shows study topics that are more focused by examining the abstracts and contents of articles published in journals in different WoS categories. Practical implications Findings related to evaluative and relational techniques can serve as useful information for researchers, who are new to the field. Originality/value This study contributes to the current knowledge accumulation by its lack of year, country, region and language limits.