Research trajectory on tourism policy: a bibliometric overview

Abstract Many scholars from various countries have been enthused by the term ‘tourism policy’ since it first appeared in the Scopus database in 1976. However, comprehensive scientific information on tourism policy is still limited. This article aims to explore the bibliography of tourism policy studies. This article uses a bibliometric analysis approach, and applies VOSviewer to visualise bibliographic data. This article indicates that tourism policy studies are increasing yearly, in line with how countries are implementing many tourism policies as an alternative to national economic development. Furthermore, research on tourism policy has involved many authors from various institutions and countries. From 159 articles reviewed, six dominant clusters were obtained. This clustering can help other scholars to see the position of their studies alongside previous studies. The results of this article show that economic development, competitiveness, policy, and management strategy are of interest to academics on the tourism policy topic. Moreover, the sustainability issues (ecotourism) and international tourism have become two of the major subjects that could greatly influence the course of future tourism policy research.