Muhammad Ashoer, April Kim Lalisan, Maricar Besa, Karisma Sri Rahayu, Sochea Nhem, Adeline Leong Suk Yee, Rashid Ating
Rooted in the slow food movement, slow tourism has recently gained traction in tourism literature as a concept that fosters local economic benefits and social equity by prioritizing community engagement over mass-market chains. It encourages mindful, reflective travel and meaningful interactions with destinations. Despite growing scholarly interest, most research remains conceptual or qualitative, with limited bibliometric insights—particularly in the post–COVID-19 context. Anchored in quantitative research, this study addresses this gap by mapping the evolving landscape of slow tourism through a bibliometric approach. Using R-based Biblioshiny software, it systematically analyses scholarly literature using “slow tourism” and “slow travel” as key-words. From 1,232 Scopus-indexed articles retrieved on April 5, 2025, a final dataset of 508 articles was selected. The analysis includes thematic evolution across different periods, thematic mapping via density–centrality quadrants, and a tree map of the most frequently studied themes. The TCCM framework is applied to identify research gaps and guide future directions. Findings reveal that slow tourism is a developing but increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary area. Thematic evolution shows a shift from broad economic and global concerns to more applied topics, such as sustainability, rural development, and stakeholder governance. High-centrality and high-density themes—such as slow tourism, tourism development, and tourist destinations—dominate the field, while supporting themes reflect growing emphasis on sustainability, community involvement, and governance structures. The diversity of frequently studied topics highlights the multidimensional nature of contemporary slow tourism research. The TCCM-based gap analysis underscores the need for: (1) stronger theoretical grounding by integrating behavioural and sociocultural models; (2) broader contextual coverage beyond Western settings to include underrepresented regions and traveller demographics; (3) clearer operationalization of constructs like “slowness” and “authenticity” with robust empirical testing; and (4) methodological diversification toward quantitative, mixed-method, longitudinal, and digital research approaches. © 2025 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.
Department of Marketing, Universitas Muslim Indonesia, Department of Tourism and Marketing, Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Australia; University of Perpetual Help System Dalta Las Piñas, Metro Manila, Philippines; Lyceum of the Philippines University, Manila, Philippines; Vocational Faculty, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia; School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia; Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education, Kent Campus, Sabah, Tuaran, Malaysia; Department of Primary Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine (FOM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Malaysia
