Research trends in tourism and hospitality from 1991 to 2020: an integrated approach of corpus linguistics and bibliometrics

Abstract: This study aims to track the historical development in tourism and hospitality research over the past 30 years by applying a novel interdisciplinary approach, combining both corpus linguistics and bibliometric analysis. Most frequently discussed topics and newly emerging topics were identified by investigating 18,266 abstracts from eighteen leading tourism and hospitality journals with corpus linguistics toolkit AntConc and natural language processing tool spaCy. Trend analysis and bibliometric methods were used to determine the longitudinal changes of research topics, most highly-cited publications, and authors’ production. This study revealed the evolution patterns of the identified 576 most frequently discussed topics across the four sub-periods (1991-2000, 2001-2010, 2011- 2015, 2016-2020). Specifically, results showed that information technology-related topics account for the largest proportion of the identified 38 newly emerging topics from 2011. Besides, researchers are increasingly focusing on the use of more sophisticated and advanced statistical methodologies. This study helps researchers make sensible decisions on what research topics to explore; it also helps practitioners and stakeholders make the shift and track opportunities in the field.

摘要： 本研究旨在通过跨学科方法（结合语料库语言学和文献计量分析），追踪过去30年旅游与酒店研究的发展历程。通过分析18,266篇来自18本顶级旅游与酒店期刊的摘要，利用语料库语言学工具AntConc和自然语言处理工具包spaCy，识别出最常讨论的话题和新兴话题。趋势分析和文献计量方法用于确定研究话题、最被引用的出版物以及作者产出的纵向变化。本研究揭示了576个最常讨论话题在四个子时期（1991-2000、2001-2010、2011-2015、2016-2020）中的演变模式。具体而言，结果显示，自2011年以来，与信息技术相关的话题在38个新兴话题中所占比例最大。此外，研究人员越来越关注更复杂和先进的统计方法的使用。本研究有助于研究人员在选择研究话题时做出明智的决策；同时也帮助实践者和利益相关者在该领域中进行转变和跟踪机遇。（翻译自GPT-4o）

Contribution: Both Li Wang and Gui Wang conceptualized the study. Both Hui Wang and Gui Wang designed the methodology and wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. Both Hui Wang and Gui Wang involved in the data collection. Gui Wang was responsible for the primary statistical analysis. Hui Wang played a significant role in refining the study’s design, supervised the data collection process, and provided crucial feedback for data interpretation. Both Li Wang, Hui Wang and Gui Wang actively reviewed, revised, and contributed to the finalization of the manuscript. Li Wang provided constructive feedbacks on the finalization of the manuscript.

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Recommended citation: Wang, G., Wang, H. & Wang, L. (2022). Research trends in tourism and hospitality from 1991 to 2020: an integrated approach of corpus linguistics and bibliometrics. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Insights, 6(2), 509-529. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-09-2021-0260