Looking back three decades of hospitality and tourism technology research: a bibliometric approach

Purpose: This study aims to identify the knowledge development and thematic evolvement in hospitality and tourism technology research, and to suggest potential directions for studies in hospitality and tourism research. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 440 technology articles published from 1990 to 2022 were retrieved from six top-tier journals. By using bibliometric analysis, 440 technology articles were analyzed to discover the proportion of technology research in the hospitality and tourism discipline, knowledge development, intellectual turning points and thematic evolvement of hospitality and tourism technology research. Findings: The findings indicated that the proportion of technology research has continuously increased over the past three decades. The findings revealed the key intellectual turning points in technology research. The topical trends showed the popular topics of technology research for the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and from 2020. The thematic map analysis results described how the major themes in technology research have evolved and shifted. Research limitations/implications: By synthesizing past three decades of hospitality and tourism technology research, this study provides an overview of how technology research has evolved in the context of hospitality and tourism and offers suggestions for future studies on technology. Originality/value: To the best knowledge of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first bibliometric analysis focusing on technology research in the hospitality and tourism discipline, thereby providing a broad understanding of how technology research has developed in the discipline.