A bibliometric review on knowledge management in tourism and hospitality: past, present and future trends

The purpose of this study is to review the plethora of studies on knowledge management (KM) in the hospitality and tourism. The purposes of this paper through a bibliometric analysis via the VOSviewer tool are to analyze the current research stream and to assess emerging trends in KM in the tourism and hospitality field.

A total of 1,732 publications with 65,150 cited references were retrieved from the Web of Science to uncover the structure and intellectual base of studies in tourism with a KM perspective. Three bibliometric analyses were performed using VOSviewer software (citation, co-citation and co-occurrence of keywords); this study aims to uncover the knowledge structure of the past, current and future trends based on the bibliographic database by assessing the most influential past publication; determining the structure of the co-cited publications; and evaluating emerging trends for future studies.

This study produced two ground-breaking research streams inductively evaluated from the three bibliometric analyses: KM and digital technology; and innovation in tourism. Furthermore, the pressing issue of sustainability in tourism from the perspective of KM would be a crucial aspect in the tourism field. These streams would provide fundamental knowledge-based and further enhance the assimilation of KM within the tourism sector. The outcome would facilitate future scholars to link important tourism topics to benefit the tourism industry facing a competitive and challenging business environment.

This study contributes to the current theoretical understanding through thematic knowledge mapping of KM and the tourism and hospitality field.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to apply bibliometric analysis to the tourism and KM field by providing a basis for the most significant issue in tourism and the essence of emerging topics and trends.