Third International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

The tourism sector particularly stands out for its sheer capacity to expand as displayed worldwide to a greater or lesser extent and it commonly performs a relevant role both as a tool for competitiveness and a driver of regional development. This theme has correspondingly attracted a great deal of interest from many scientists and there has been exponential growth in research on the area. Hence, the objectives of this study include the mapping of the intellectual structure of research on “tourism and competitiveness” as conveyed by academic literature, identifying the fundamental contributions of research on the field, determining those lines of research that constitute its intellectual structure, and identifying those scientific journals with the greatest impact. To this end, we carried out a bibliometric analysis of the “tourism and competitiveness” concept in order to ascertain the research undertaken and, among other results, highlight the identification of three clusters of distinctive core themes to this field of knowledge.