The contribution of economics to sustainable tourism research

Abstract This paper aims to identify and explore the interlinkages between sustainable tourism research and the study of economics with the goal of identifying main themes and gaps in the economics of sustainable tourism. It contributes to identifying the unique perspective that economics has contributed and can still contribute towards the sustainable tourism discourse. This review article retrieved and analysed 5593 papers using scientometric analysis. The findings indicate that economic theory and/or methods have had a clear influence on some, but not all clusters of sustainable tourism research. Clusters that are dominated by economic theory and methods include economic growth, climate change, the sharing economy and evolutionary framework. Current themes in economics, including migration, declining labour shares and rising inequality have not attracted attention in sustainable tourism research. Additionally, a much clearer focus on inter- and intragenerational effects, shadow prices and dealing with externalities deserves further scrutiny. Gaps also exist in terms of laboratory studies, field experimental studies and the application of behavioural economics. This article also launches the special issue – the Economics of Sustainable Tourism – which includes ten blind-peer-reviewed papers.