Bibliometric analysis and recent trends on women research in tourism: a comprehensive review

Abstract

This study presents a bibliometric analysis of women research in tourism, drawing on 696 Scopus-indexed articles published up to August 2022. Using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny, we apply co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and keyword co-occurrence analyses to map the field's intellectual structure and thematic evolution. Findings reveal five clusters: women's empowerment; women tourists' experiences; motivations of women tourists; gendered perspectives; and women's sexual behaviour in tourism. The study highlights publication peaks and emerging trends such as gender inequality, empowerment, and evolving travel behaviours. It also offers a future research agenda with guiding questions to address key gaps and advance scholarship in gender and tourism studies.