EXPLORING SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION ON HERITAGE TOURISM IN IBERO-AMERICA: A BIBLIOMETRIC PERSPECTIVE (1995–2023)

This study evaluates the state of heritage tourism research in Ibero-American countries from 1995 to 2023. It aims to identify publication trends, leading authors and institutions, citation structures, thematic evolution, and the most influential journals in terms of productivity and impact. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on a dataset of 519 peer-reviewed articles retrieved from the Scopus database, authored by researchers affiliated with institutions in 16 Ibero-American countries. Performance analysis and science mapping techniques were employed to assess productivity, scholarly impact, collaboration patterns, and intellectual structures. Findings reveal a marked acceleration in research output after 2020, with 50% of publications produced in the last four years. English dominates as the language of publication (76%), while the articles span 21 subject areas, primarily Social Sciences, Business and Management, and Environmental Science. Research is highly concentrated, with Spain (59%) and Portugal (13%) as the leading contributors. Authorship patterns indicate that 86.4% of contributors published only one article, reflecting a field largely sustained by occasional authors. Nearly 92.7% of publications received fewer than 50 citations, underscoring limited impact. A key imbalance emerges between productivity and impact at both journal and author levels. Pedro M. García-Villaverde is the most prolific author (18 publications, 436 citations), yet the most cited work is by Richards and Wilson, (1 publication, 666 citations) similarly, Sustainability (59 articles, 1,005 citations) is the most productive journal, while Tourism Management is the most influential, with 1,795 citations from only 12 articles. Keyword analysis highlights the dominance of classical terms such as “cultural tourism,” “heritage,” and “World Heritage Cities,” alongside growing interest in sustainability, geotourism, and urban tourism. However, the wide dispersion of keywords reflects thematic fragmentation. Overall, heritage tourism research in Ibero-America has expanded rapidly but remains geographically concentrated, reliant on occasional contributors, and limited in international impact, with few highly cited articles.