Abstract
This study maps the evolution, thematic structure, and emerging directions of green tourism and sustainable development research through bibliometric and science-mapping analyses. The dataset comprises 213 Englishlanguage publications indexed in Scopus between 1989 and 2025. Biblioshiny in R and VOS viewer were employed to examine publication and citation trends, the geographical distribution of research, leading journals and highly cited documents, keyword co-occurrence, and temporal thematic evolution. The findings show that scholarly output has expanded substantially, with particularly rapid growth after 2022 and a high concentration of research activity in China and other Asian countries. Six major thematic clusters were identified: sustainable tourist behaviour and market dynamics; carbon emissions, energy use, and climate change impacts; green economy and public policy; low-carbon planning and sustainable tourism development; macroeconomic growth, innovation, and environmental sustainability; and energy efficiency and green tourism supply chain management. Temporal analysis reveals a progressive shift from broad concerns with sustainability, tourism development, and environmental management toward carbon measurement, decarbonisation, renewable energy, behavioural responses, green marketing, waste management, and supply chain practices. These shifts broadly correspond with evolving global sustainability agendas, including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, pandemic recovery, and carbon-reduction commitments. By integrating performance analysis with science mapping, this study clarifies the development and fragmentation of the field, identifies opportunities for stronger integration across behavioural, technological, operational, and institutional perspectives, and highlights priorities for future research and evidence-based sustainable tourism policy.
Keywords: Bibliometric Analysis, Green Tourism, Low-carbon Tourism, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Tourism.