Vietnamese agritourism knowledge within the Destination Knowledge Ecosystem: a mixed-method bibliometric analysis (2000–2025)

Destination-focused knowledge audits in agritourism often remain descriptive, overlooking structural inequalities and destination-level bottlenecks . This study advances a transferable diagnostic by integrating the Destination Knowledge Ecosystem (DKE) with bibliometric mapping, CiteSpace Structural Variation Analysis (SVA), and qualitative synthesis to assess knowledge inputs, network structures, thematic content and outcomes in an emerging economy . Using a sequential mixed-method design, we harmonise multilingual domestic records through a bespoke 59-field WoS-style schema and analyse three corpora (2000–2025): 53 domestic Vietnamese records, 22 internationally indexed Vietnam-focused papers and 1447 global non-Vietnam papers . Empirically, Vietnamese agritourism output has grown 10-fold since 2014 yet remains modest (75 Vietnam-focused records), with highly concentrated authorship (Lotka α = 2.82) and limited cross-border collaboration (14%). The domestic keyword base is narrow: while climate resilience, digital innovation and governance remain peripheral. SVA identifies only two Vietnam-centred papers with modest bridging potential , reflecting Vietnam’s peripheral position in knowledge flows. Qualitative analysis reveals a practice-led, under theorised corpus with weak policy uptake. By combining DKE and SVA at destination scale, this study reframes bibliometric reviews as ecosystem diagnostics, offering a replicable approach to identify thematic gaps, collaboration constraints, and pathways for more inclusive agritourism knowledge development.