Blockchain technology in the tourism industry: Bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the current body of literature on blockchain technology within the tourism industry and bridge the existing research gap in this area. We searched the Web of Science Core Collection using the topic field with the keywords “blockchain” or “block chain” combined with “tourism”. The search covered titles, abstracts, author keywords and KeyWords Plus, and was refined by using the “hospitality, leisure, sport & tourism” category and documents in English only. After relevance screening based on titles, abstracts and author keywords, 118 documents were included in the analysis. Descriptive and keyword co-occurrence analyses were conducted using VOSviewer. The first publication on blockchains in tourism appeared in 2018, followed by a gradual increase in scholarly output. The results show that blockchain-related tourism research has grown rapidly in recent years but remains fragmented, with publication activity concentrated in a limited number of technology-oriented journals but with weak collaboration across authors, institutions and countries. Taken together, these findings indicate an expanding yet still unconsolidated research field shaped by emerging academic attention rather than mature research integration.