Exploring Chinese sustainable tourism: a 25-year perspective

As sustainable tourism advances, issues such as environmental pollution, overexploitation, and ecological imbalance have been identified alongside the effects of climate change and tourism. Thus, the literature related to sustainable tourism in emerging economies, especially in China, has grown rapidly and contributed to knowledge development in recent years. An in-depth and systematic review is required to explore research development and potential research opportunities. This paper explored 1,293 documents on Chinese sustainable tourism in the Scopus database, using indicator analysis along with scientific mapping methodologies such as VOSviewer and Gephi. It uncovered key journals, authors, and papers in relevant fields and identified four thematic clusters, namely, “government policy,” “rural and heritage tourism,” “ecotourism,” and “urban tourism.” Analyses based on Sustainable Development Goals suggested that advancements in Chinese sustainable tourism contribute positively to global efforts. Furthermore, this study outlined the pertinent themes and research areas for Chinese sustainable tourism, offering information and recommendations for future researchers and tourism practitioners.