Revisiting sustainable tourism: a bibliometric review of key contributors and themes with an integrated framework

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the extensive yet fragmented sustainable tourism literature, clarifying core concepts, identifying key contributors, delineating research themes, and synthesizing an integrated framework. Based on 1,558 peer-reviewed English-language journal articles published between 1990 and January 2025, key contributors–such as journals, articles, authors, institutions, and countries–are first identified through publication volume and citation analysis. Subsequently, using the bibliometric software VOSviewer, co-occurrence analysis generates preliminary research clusters and associated co-words. These co-words are then manually coded, yielding eight distinct themes within each cluster. Finally, through integrating content analysis with in-depth readings of high-impact articles, we interpret these themes, systematically investigate their interrelationships, and develop an integrated theoretical framework for sustainable tourism research. This work contributes to ongoing discussions regarding the definition and operationalization of sustainable tourism, addresses conflicts concerning the triple bottom line goals among stakeholders, and, crucially, develops a comprehensive framework that enhances our understanding of sustainable tourism actions, their antecedents, and their consequences.