In recent decades, rising consumer interest in visiting relatively less commercialized natural destinations has facilitated the growth of ecotourism. Yet the research on ecotourism is fragmented, presenting gaps in the current understanding of this topic. This study performs a bibliometric analysis to assimilate the present knowledge from a total of 878 articles published in six reputable outlets between 1990 and 2019. The study analyzed citation chains and coauthorship networks to acknowledge contributions from select authors, organizations, and countries. Next, a cocitation analysis of the prior literature identified four major thematic areas: ecological preservation, residents' interests, the carbon footprint, and tourists' behaviors. Further, a dynamic cocitation analysis technique mapped the development of these thematic areas. Subsequently, a content analysis of the four thematic areas delivered significant insights about prior research in the domain and indicated future avenues of research.

在最近的几十年中，消费者对访问相对商业化程度较低的自然目的地的兴趣不断增长，促进了生态旅游的发展。然而，关于生态旅游的研究是零散的，在当前对该主题的理解上存在差距。这项研究进行了文献计量分析，以吸收1990年至2019年期间在六个著名网点发表的总共878篇文章中的当前知识。该研究分析了引文链和共同作者网络，以表彰部分作者，组织和国家的贡献。接下来，对现有文献进行的引文分析确定了四个主要主题领域：生态保护，居民利益，碳足迹和游客行为。此外，动态引文分析技术映射了这些主题领域的发展。