Environmental concern and its impact on tourism and hospitality from a bibliometric perspective

Environmental concern has evolved from a peripheral issue to a central axis in tourism and hospitality, yet its structural and thematic progression remains insufficiently synthesised. This article offers a longitudinal bibliometric review spanning 31 years (1993–2024) of research on environmental concern in tourism and hospitality, examining how the construct has been conceptualised, operationalised, and connected to debates on sustainable development. Drawing on 886 articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection, we apply co-word analysis and science-mapping techniques using SciMAT to examine publication trends, thematic clusters and their evolution across three periods. The results reveal a clear trajectory across three phases, with defined transitions. The initial phase (1993–2007) focuses on ecotourism and environmental impacts, setting the foundation for environmental themes in the field. This groundwork leads to the consolidation phase (2008–2018), marked by the mainstream adoption of green practices, environmental certifications and value–attitude–behaviour frameworks. This shift occurs as sustainability becomes integrated across industry practices. Building on these developments, the recent phase (2019–2024) is characterised by the integration of environmental concerns into climate risk management, circular-economy logics, community participation, and digital transition, reflecting a broadening of themes and greater operational engagement. Mapping identifies the most influential journals, authors and themes and shows how environmental concern has shifted from niche debates to a cross-cutting dimension linking tourists’ values and behaviours with firms’ routines and destination governance. Beyond describing the intellectual structure of the field, the study provides actionable guidance for researchers, policymakers and practitioners: it highlights under-explored themes, suggests priorities for empirical designs and operational audits of environmental performance, and points to governance approaches that can harness environmental concern while mitigating greenwashing. Overall, the review positions environmental concern as an ethical, managerial and experiential dimension of tourism systems and offers reproducible evidence-based findings that can orient future interdisciplinary research in sustainable tourism.