Mapping the Knowledge Domain of Smart Tourism 2015-2024: Analysis of Trends, Collaboration Networks, and Conceptual Structure

Introduction

The widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) globally has created a fundamental transformation in the tourism industry, giving rise to the smart tourism paradigm. Smart tourism, as an innovative concept that integrates advanced technological infrastructure with traditional tourism services, has created new opportunities for enhancing tourist experiences, optimizing destination management, and increasing competitiveness. This paradigm shift represents a convergence of digital transformation with traditional hospitality and tourism practices, enabling destinations to leverage real-time data, intelligent systems, and interconnected devices to create more personalized, efficient, and sustainable tourism experiences. The emergence of smart tourism has been particularly accelerated by technological advancements including Internet of Things (IoT), big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and mobile computing platforms. These technologies have not only transformed how tourists interact with destinations but also revolutionized destination management strategies, marketing approaches, and service delivery mechanisms. The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the adoption of smart tourism technologies, highlighting their crucial role in ensuring safety, managing capacity, and maintaining operational continuity. With the remarkable growth of research in this field over the past decade, encompassing diverse disciplines from computer science to hospitality management, there is a need for comprehensive understanding of knowledge structure, evolutionary trends, and research patterns. This study aims to map the knowledge domain of smart tourism during 2015-2024, identifying main research themes, analyzing scientific collaboration networks, and revealing the conceptual structure of this rapidly evolving field.

Methodology

This study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach using advanced scientific network analysis techniques to provide a comprehensive overview of smart tourism research landscape. Research data were systematically collected from reputable databases including Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus, covering publications from 2015 to 2024. The initial search strategy employed specific keywords related to smart tourism, smart destinations, and intelligent tourism systems, resulting in an initial dataset of over 800 publications. Following a rigorous screening process that included relevance assessment, duplicate removal, and quality evaluation, 487 articles were selected for final analysis. The methodological framework encompassed multiple analytical approaches: descriptive analysis of publication trends to identify temporal patterns and growth trajectories, co-citation analysis to map the intellectual structure and identify foundational works, co-word analysis to discover thematic clusters and conceptual relationships, and scientific collaboration network analysis to examine research partnership patterns and institutional connections. Advanced bibliometric software tools including VOSviewer for network visualization, CiteSpace for temporal analysis and burst detection, and Bibliometrix package in R environment were employed for comprehensive data analysis and scientific map generation. The analytical process also incorporated social network analysis techniques to examine author collaboration patterns, institutional partnerships, and cross-country research networks.

Results and Discussion

The comprehensive analysis revealed significant insights into the evolution and structure of smart tourism research. Publication trend analysis demonstrated that smart tourism experienced remarkable exponential growth from 2015, with a notable acceleration beginning in 2017 and peak publication volumes occurring during 2018-2020, followed by continued steady growth through 2024. This pattern reflects the maturation of the field and its integration into mainstream tourism research. Author productivity and impact analysis identified key influential researchers who have shaped the theoretical foundations of the field. Chulmo Koo emerged as the most prolific author with 22 articles and 1,691 citations, demonstrating exceptional research output and impact. Ulrike Gretzel, recognized as a pioneer in the field, contributed 11 articles with 1,472 citations, while Marianna Sigala, with 4 articles and 1,279 citations, showed remarkable citation impact per publication. Other significant contributors include Dimitrios Buhalis, Zheng Xiang, and Josep Ivars-Baidal, collectively forming the core intellectual community. Geographic distribution analysis revealed pronounced research concentration in technologically advanced economies, with the United States leading in citation impact (47 articles, 3,389 citations), South Korea showing highest productivity relative to population (51 articles, 2,542 citations), and China demonstrating the largest publication volume (138 articles, 1,989 citations). European countries, particularly Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom, also contributed significantly to the knowledge base. The co-word analysis unveiled five distinct but interconnected thematic clusters that define the conceptual landscape: smart technologies cluster encompassing big data analytics, IoT applications, and artificial intelligence implementations; destination management and development cluster focusing on tourism management strategies, governance frameworks, and innovation processes; tourist experience cluster examining tourist behavior, personalization mechanisms, and service quality; competitiveness and cultural heritage cluster addressing destination positioning and heritage preservation; and ICT in hospitality cluster exploring technological applications in accommodation and service sectors. The concept "smart destination" with 374 occurrences and 503 link strength emerged as the most central and integrative concept, serving as a bridge connecting all thematic areas and demonstrating its fundamental role in the field's conceptual architecture.

Conclusion

This comprehensive knowledge mapping study demonstrated that smart tourism has undergone a remarkable transformation from a purely technological concept to a sophisticated, multidisciplinary paradigm that encompasses technological, managerial, experiential, cultural, and sustainability dimensions. The field has matured from initial technology-focused discussions to more holistic approaches that consider human factors, social implications, and environmental sustainability. Several critical research gaps were identified, including significant geographic imbalance favoring developed countries, insufficient representation of rural and heritage destinations, limited attention to developing country contexts, and inadequate focus on ethical considerations, privacy concerns, and digital divide issues. The temporal analysis revealed an evolution from infrastructure-focused research toward experience-centric and sustainability-oriented investigations. Future research directions should prioritize strengthening international collaborations to address geographic disparities, developing context-specific frameworks for diverse cultural and economic settings, intensifying focus on social equity and inclusion in smart tourism development, and advancing theoretical foundations through interdisciplinary approaches. The study's findings provide valuable insights for researchers, policymakers, destination managers, and industry practitioners, offering a roadmap for future investigations and practical applications in smart tourism development.