Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify research perspectives/clusters in the field of urban tourism (city tourism) in narrow sense and tourism cities (cities and tourism) in the broader sense to examine the complex relationship through the optics of science mapping. This paper believes that the existing qualitative assessments of this field can be experimentally verified and visualized.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the key conceptual dilemmas of research perspectives in urban tourism are highlighted. Based on the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection and the VOSviewer (computer program for visualizing bibliometric networks), the data will be analyzed. Clustering is used to evaluate information retrieval (inclusivity or selectivity of the search query), publication patterns (journal articles), author keywords, terminology and to identify the respective cities and author collaborations between countries.

Findings

Terminological specificities and their contextuality (authors’ preferences) are elaborated, as the topic is studied by authors from different disciplinary fields. Compared to other specific tourisms, urban tourism includes geographic terms (variations of city names) and terms with different connotations (travelers, visitors). Recent Spanish (also Portuguese) linguistic/geographic contexts are noticeable and a strong presence of WOS Emerging Sources Citation Index papers. Research perspectives are represented in the network of clusters of connected terms. If the search is based on a narrower sense of strict urban tourism, then tourism-business topics predominate. If tourism and cities are less closely linked, socio-cultural and environmental-spatial perspectives emerge, as does tourism/cities vulnerability (climate change and health issues).

Research limitations/implications

The construction of a search syntax for the purpose of retrieval is always marked by compromises, given different terminological usages. A narrow search query will miss many relevant documents. On the other hand, if the query is too general, it returns less relevant documents. To this end, this paper tested queries on three different levels of inclusivity or selectivity. More consistent use of terms would benefit authors in the field of urban tourism when searching for references (information retrieval) and, as a consequence, would allow better integration of the field.

Practical implications

This study provides a practical method for evaluating cities and tourism in combining the expertise of an information scientist and a sociologist. It points out numerous caveats in information retrieval. It offers an overview of publishing just prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, thus providing an opportunity for further comparative studies.

Originality/value

This study is the first to examine urban tourism using such a method and can serve as a complement to the existing systematization of qualitative approaches. The findings are consistent with numerous qualitative assessments of weak the research interconnection between the specifics of cities and tourism in terms of broader socio-spatial processes. However, the study suggests that such research linkage is increasing, which is noticeable in relation to issues of social sustainability (e.g. overtourism, Airbnb and touristification).

中文翻译：

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映射城市旅游问题：通过网络可视化的视角分析研究视角

目的

本研究的目的是确定狭义的城市旅游（城市旅游）领域和广义的旅游城市（城市和旅游）的研究视角/集群，通过科学制图的光学来考察复杂的关系。本文认为，该领域现有的定性评估可以通过实验验证和可视化。

设计/方法/方法

首先，强调了城市旅游研究视角的关键概念困境。基于 Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection 和 VOSviewer（用于可视化文献计量网络的计算机程序），将对数据进行分析。聚类用于评估信息检索（搜索查询的包容性或选择性）、出版模式（期刊文章）、作者关键词、术语，并确定各国之间的各个城市和作者合作。

发现

由于该主题由来自不同学科领域的作者研究，因此详细阐述了术语的特殊性及其上下文（作者的偏好）。与其他特定旅游相比，城市旅游包括地理术语（城市名称的变体）和具有不同内涵的术语（旅行者、游客）。最近的西班牙语（也包括葡萄牙语）语言/地理背景很引人注目，并且 WOS 新兴资源引文索引论文中大量出现。研究观点以连接术语的集群网络表示。如果搜索是基于严格意义上的城市旅游的狭义，那么旅游商业主题占主导地位。如果旅游业和城市的联系不那么紧密，就会出现社会文化和环境空间观点，旅游业/城市脆弱性（气候变化和健康问题）也是如此。

研究限制/影响

考虑到不同的术语用法，用于检索目的的搜索句法的构建总是以折衷为标志。狭窄的搜索查询将错过许多相关文档。另一方面，如果查询过于笼统，则会返回相关性较低的文档。为此，本文在三个不同级别的包容性或选择性上测试了查询。在搜索参考文献（信息检索）时，更一致地使用术语将使城市旅游领域的作者受益，因此可以更好地整合该领域。

实际影响

本研究提供了一种结合信息科学家和社会学家的专业知识来评估城市和旅游业的实用方法。它指出了信息检索中的许多注意事项。它概述了 Covid-19 爆发之前的出版情况，从而为进一步的比较研究提供了机会。

原创性/价值

本研究首次使用这种方法研究城市旅游，可以作为对现有定性方法系统化的补充。就更广泛的社会空间过程而言，这些发现与许多关于城市和旅游业之间的研究联系薄弱的定性评估一致。然而，研究表明这种研究联系正在增加，这在社会可持续性问题（例如过度旅游、Airbnb 和旅游化）方面很明显。