Coastal, marine or blue tourism governance? : Spotting academic trends through a bibliometric analysis
Balestracci, Giulia (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
Nel-lo Andreu, Marta Gemma (Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Departament de Geografia)
Gómez Mestres, Sílvia (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Antropologia Social i Cultural)

Data:	2025
Descripció:	17 pàg.
Resum:	Recognising the critical role of oceans in sustainable development, as emphasised by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this study examines the evolution of academic research on blue tourism governance, a growing field situated at the intersection of marine sustainability, tourism development, and ocean governance. Blue tourism- encompassing coastal and marine tourism-is the largest and most economically significant component of the blue economy, yet its governance dimension remains relatively underexplored. To address this gap, a structured bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed publications from 1986 to 2024 was undertaken, using VOSviewer to identify conceptual patterns, thematic trends, and institutional contributions related to coastal, marine, and blue tourism governance. The results reveal a sharp increase in research output from 2010, particularly following the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the launch of the Ocean Decade. Early literature focused predominantly on economic development and resource use, whereas recent publications increasingly emphasise sustainability, climate change, marine policy, stakeholder engagement, and integrated governance models. The findings also show growing disciplinary convergence, with environmental sciences, economics, and social sciences frequently intersecting in blue tourism governance discourse. This study clarifies the conceptual positioning of blue tourism within the blue economy framework and highlighting the shift towards governance-oriented scholarship. It identifies critical research gaps, such as including the need for adaptive, multilevel governance approaches and offers a foundation for future work aimed at enhancing the sustainability and equity of tourism in marine and coastal regions.
Nota:	Altres ajuts: The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This work has been funded by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) the public funding body within the Secretariat of Universities and Research, Ministry of Enterprise and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia. AGAUR obtained the quality certification ISO 9001:2008 for its grant management performance in 2012 and the European 'HR excellence seal' in 2014.
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Blue economy ; Sustainable development ; Ocean decade ; Coastal and marine tourism ; Ocean governance ; VOSviewer
Publicat a:	Frontiers in marine science, Vol. 12, art. 1623424, 2025, ISSN 2296-7745

DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1623424

17 p, 1.3 MB

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