Tourism Labor Market and the Attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals: Pending Challenges, Ongoing Opportunities and More Responsible and Inclusive Scientific Research for the Advancement of the Tourism Industry

ABSTRACT Concerning human resources, research in the tourism sector has traditionally focused on a personnel‐managerial perspective rather than a labor market‐condition analysis per se, limiting the examination of its unique working ecosystem and distinct socioeconomic particularities. This has evidenced an apparent thematic research gap in the tourism labor market, with potential subgroups of subjects insufficiently addressed, disregarding the urgency of scientifically confronting the adverse medium‐ and long‐term impact of this lack on the future development of tourism human capital and the sustainable sector's evolution. This study aims to explore the existence of potential subgroups of gaps with poor scholarly attention in the tourism labor market today, particularly focusing on those that may limit the attainment of gender and labor fairness , or hinder the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in its SDGs 5 ( Gender Equality ) and 8 ( Decent work ). A bibliometric analysis of scientific research—based on Performance Analysis and Scientific Mapping (bibliographic citations, co‐authorship networks, bibliographic coupling, and co‐word analysis)—is here utilized to appraise the state of affair on these subgroups. The findings underscore the persistence of overlooked subcategories within existing research gaps, particularly those related to professional requalification and the emergence of new occupational profiles shaped by innovative services and delivery models, ongoing digitalization, and sustainability and gender perspectives. This work provides a complementary approach to people management research in tourism from the Sustainable Human Resource Management framework and the labor market‐condition analysis, which is collectively relatively unexplored.