International research in tourism marketing: content analysis on topics and methodologies

With a two-fold purpose (1) to find out the topics that have been paid more attention by scholars with the aim of identifying future research lines, and (2) to analyse the methodological approach employed in the papers, content analysis has been conducted focused on 269 marketing oriented papers published in the main international tourist journals in the period 2004-2006. Findings obtained by three independent judges highlight the key role of consumer behaviour research, followed by marketing strategies. Concerning the setting, almost a half of the tourism marketing works is focused on destinations, although specific types of tourism is also a relevant topic for scholars.