Visualization Analysis of Rural Tourism and Agritourism Research Based on Web of Science

Agritourism offers significant potential to foster socio-economic development while reducing environmental impacts. This study examines the current landscape and emerging themes in agritourism and rural tourism using bibliometric analysis. Publications indexed in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science (WoS) core database were analyzed with CiteSpace and VOSviewer software. A total of 2,027 articles and review papers published between 2005 and October 8, 2024 – including 18 highly cited papers – were included. Most publications were written in English, spanning 101 countries or regions, and appeared in 389 journals and book series. The leading journals were “Sustainability”, “Tourism Management”, “Journal of Sustainable Tourism”, “Land”, “Current Issues in Tourism”. The most active countries in the field were China, Spain, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Using Co-occurrence network visualization in VOSviewer, the keywords were grouped into nine distinct research clusters. Most studies focused on the three Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), Goal 15 (Life on Land), and Goal 2 (Zero Hunger). The results of this analysis provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of research and suggest directions for future studies in rural tourism and agritourism. Additionally, the findings provide useful insights for students seeking graduate programs and for researchers selecting journals that publish leading work in this field.