COMPETITIVENESS IN THE TOURISM SECTOR: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

The tourism sector particularly stands out for its sheer capacity to expand as displayed worldwide to a greater or lesser extent and commonly performing a relevant role both as a tool for competitiveness and a driver of regional development. This theme has correspondingly attracted a great deal of interest from many scientists, and there has been exponential growth in research on the area. Hence, the objectives of this present study include the mapping of the intellectual structure of research on "Tourism & Competitiveness" as conveyed by the academic literature, identifying the fundamental contributions of research on the field, determining those lines of research that constitute its intellectual structure and identifying those scientific journals with the greatest impact. To this end, we carried out bibliometric analysis of the "Tourism & Competitiveness" concept in order to ascertain the research undertaken and, among other results, highlighting the identification of three clusters of distinctive core themes to this field of knowledge.