Bibliometric Analysis of Social Carrying Capacity in Tourist Destinations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58812/sdi.v2i02.3021Keywords:
Social Carrying Capacity, Sustainable Tourism, Tourist Destination, Overtourism, Tourism Management, Bibliometric AnalysisAbstract
The rapid growth of tourism activities has increased concerns regarding the social impacts experienced by local communities, making social carrying capacity an essential concept in achieving sustainable destination management. This study aims to examine the intellectual structure, research evolution, influential publications, and emerging trends in the field of social carrying capacity in tourist destinations through a bibliometric analysis approach. Data were collected from the Scopus database using relevant keywords related to social carrying capacity, tourism, and tourist destinations. The retrieved publications were analyzed using VOSviewer to identify keyword co-occurrence patterns, citation networks, author collaboration, institutional collaboration, country collaboration, and research density patterns. The findings reveal that research on social carrying capacity has developed from an initial emphasis on tourism capacity measurement and destination management toward broader discussions on sustainable tourism, overtourism, resident perceptions, and community well-being. The keyword analysis highlights carrying capacity, social carrying capacity, sustainable tourism, tourist destination, and sustainable development as the central themes shaping this research domain. Citation analysis indicates that foundational studies on tourism carrying capacity and social impacts have significantly influenced subsequent research development. Furthermore, collaboration analysis demonstrates increasing international cooperation, with European countries, particularly Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal, playing prominent roles in advancing knowledge within this field. This study contributes to the tourism literature by mapping the evolution of social carrying capacity research and identifying future research directions related to destination resilience, community participation, tourism governance, and sustainable tourism strategies.
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