Assessing the intersection of tourism and sustainable development: A bibliometric analysis from the perspectives of medicine, health, therapy, and wellness

Abstract

This study employs bibliometric techniques to construct a comprehensive knowledge map encompassing medical, health, therapy, and wellness (MHTW) tourism for sustainable development. It also aims to detail collaborations between authors, institutions, and countries; analyze keywords; and identify research trends. The study is based on the Web of Science database and utilizes the Citespace software to analyze 318 relevant publications from 2014 to 2024, constructing author coauthorship networks, institutional coauthorship networks, and keyword co-occurrence networks, as well as performing prominence and cluster analyses of keywords. Findings reveal a significant growth trend since 2014 in publications on the integration of MHTW tourism and the advancement of sustainable tourism. Prominent researchers include Lin, Hsiao-Hsien, Hsu, Chin-Hsien, Ariza-Montes, Antonic, Han, and Heesup, along with several closely collaborating research teams. The United States, China, and Spain lead the research output. The National Chin-Yi University of Technology and the Australian National University are preeminently positioned in sustainable research, and new contributors such as Qingdao University are emerging and facilitating wider research efforts. Furthermore, the research agenda highlights the health concept in tourism and promotes MHTW tourism for the sustainable development of societies, economies, and the environment. Future research should emphasize international collaborations and promote knowledge sharing and resource integration to collectively address global health challenges. Moreover, scholarly attention on the application of emerging technologies in MHTW tourism can enhance service quality and sustainability to achieve a harmonious balance of economic, social, and environmental benefits.

Keywords

Sustainable tourism / Health tourism / Medical tourism / Bibliometric analysis / International collaboration

Acknowledgments

None.

Funding

None.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Author contributions

Conceptualization: All authors

Formal analysis: All authors

Investigation: Songyu Jiang

Methodology: Shu Li

Writing-original draft: All authors

Writing-review & editing: All authors

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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